Rank How do you give out rank?

[warhammer74]

Does everyone get rank in your games in Mek HQ.   I some times try but laziness sets in and I end up only ranking commanders for ships and such.  Just curious if some go through and give everyone ranks and how do you pick who gets what?

[Thom293]

I give everyone ranks.  You can shift-click many people and right click assign them all the same rank, so it is pretty easy to do.

Generally, for enlisted ranks: Founders usually all get Sarge or above.  But for new recruits, green and ultra-green get recruit.  Regulars get Private and Corporal.  Vets + get Sarg and above.

[johnboyjjb]

I had a fancy spreadsheet that looked at the time in service and time in grade and skills and promoted people into officers or warrant officers. Recruits of high skill would work their way toward the top over the course of 4-5 years.

It didn't work. I'd end up with 3-4 officers in a single tank and my only enlisted were just beginning. The death toll and retirement rate was insufficient and the timeline too tight that everybody eventually worked up into unreasonable positions.

[dgorsman]

I usually handle ranks, at least with Mechwarriors and pilots.  Lately I've been doing more.  One of the problems was difficulty in determining who was going to be in command of a formation - infantry commanders were frequently coming out ahead of all others due to being at the company level compared to lance/platoon level for Mech/armored units.  Also important as ranking officers determine certain bonuses from Tactics, Strategy, and Leadership skills.  So I tossed out a few conventions, so that the branches aren't entirely equal until they start hitting 'command' ranks, around Lieutenant Colonel or so.  Also added in numerous intermediate ranks where they made sense, and some appropriate ranks for the technical side.

Pretty much everyone new starts at recruit, except for infantry hired as a unit which gets standard distribution with 2nd Lt for CO.  Everyone is promoted to first enlisted rank after a year of no combat, or after first combat.  Private 2nd gets PFC'd after another year or their unit does well in combat.  Promotion to corporal happens if the person does very well.  Promotion to Sergeant and above is space limited and regardless of skill rating or time in service/grade e.g. Mech lance have one as a second-in-command, infantry have one per squad (although a Corporal might fill in if there aren't enough).  Vehicle commanders are similarly sergeants, with corporals if needed.  I field oversized infantry formations to better match generated OpFors, with the senior being (infantry) Captain or 1st Lt, with the rest typically 2nd Lts.

Large vessel crews are still in a 'not great' status.  Captain as who... pilot?  'Crewmember'?  Pilots as officers as traditional, or enlisted?  Similarly, technician promotions are somewhat more 'feel' based, some being organized into squads (either rifle or custom infantry) with appropriate leadership structure, while others without small arms skills are not.

Promotion checking is typically handled at the end of shorter contracts, and monthly on longer ones like garrison.  Or when a new formation is stood up or someone retires (which I handle manually, and highly recommend doing so over the automated version), when there is a chain of promotions to fill empty command slots.

[ThePW]

I usually handle ranks, at least with Mechwarriors and pilots.  Lately I've been doing more.  One of the problems was difficulty in determining who was going to be in command of a formation - infantry commanders were frequently coming out ahead of all others due to being at the company level compared to lance/platoon level for Mech/armored units.  Also important as ranking officers determine certain bonuses from Tactics, Strategy, and Leadership skills.  So I tossed out a few conventions, so that the branches aren't entirely equal until they start hitting 'command' ranks, around Lieutenant Colonel or so.  Also added in numerous intermediate ranks where they made sense, and some appropriate ranks for the technical side.

Pretty much everyone new starts at recruit, except for infantry hired as a unit which gets standard distribution with 2nd Lt for CO.  Everyone is promoted to first enlisted rank after a year of no combat, or after first combat.  Private 2nd gets PFC'd after another year or their unit does well in combat.  Promotion to corporal happens if the person does very well.  Promotion to Sergeant and above is space limited and regardless of skill rating or time in service/grade e.g. Mech lance have one as a second-in-command, infantry have one per squad (although a Corporal might fill in if there aren't enough).  Vehicle commanders are similarly sergeants, with corporals if needed.  I field oversized infantry formations to better match generated OpFors, with the senior being (infantry) Captain or 1st Lt, with the rest typically 2nd Lts.

Large vessel crews are still in a 'not great' status.  Captain as who... pilot?  'Crewmember'?  Pilots as officers as traditional, or enlisted?  Similarly, technician promotions are somewhat more 'feel' based, some being organized into squads (either rifle or custom infantry) with appropriate leadership structure, while others without small arms skills are not.

Promotion checking is typically handled at the end of shorter contracts, and monthly on longer ones like garrison.  Or when a new formation is stood up or someone retires (which I handle manually, and highly recommend doing so over the automated version), when there is a chain of promotions to fill empty command slots.

Everything below is based on my personal understanding of Enlisted, Warrants and Officers (Line, Staff and Restricted) in the US Navy. Your milage will vary...

Aerospace pilots (presumably) are going to be Officers (If you go ATOW pathways as a guide) but in my current Megamek game setting, sometimes Pilots are enlisted who grew up learning the stick with commercial spaceborne aircraft (if you take the time to type up a bio for specific toons you acquire).

Mechwarriors, Tankers or  all Infantry subtypes would commonly be enlisted (unless in your mind's eye, you want the prospective toon to be an officer, either starting out as an Officer or later conversion into an officer from the enlisted ranks).

VTOL pilots would be Warrants (as they are in the US Army aviation aspects of the service) but you could also make Conventional Pilots Warrants (in order to make that line of thought more... IDk... fluid?)

Dropship, Jumpship and Warship crews are distinct different and here i go simply along my Naval experiances. Gunners will be enlisted (i chose to call them Fire Controlmen like the job in the Navy. They look at scopes, push buttons and bark into mics, where i assume nameless someones actually Ready, Shoot, Aim), Technicians are Engineer's Mate (Dropships) and Enginemen (Jumpships). The pilots?

One pilot is the 1st Officer (and is an Officer) the second is the 2nd Officer (also a O) and the third will be a Quartermaster (enlisted) (again, going by my understanding of things Space Navy). Using ranks is important because the way megamek works, if your highest rank (effectively) is the enlisted pilot, its his/her name that appears on the ToE tab, not the intended officer

Jumpships is the same with on addition: I call the Jump Navigators... Navigators (and they are officers in my mind's eye)

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Although I am only use few active members - who are individual unit leader - and don't consider the others at all(or consider that many of these are actually not exists in the reality and it was added just because of fulfill the minimum crew requirement), but for individual unit leader/pilot I am always give them the rank. Land armors and BA team leaders are always have at least sergeant grade rank, aerospace pilots are either WO or officer(my own custom rank system defines that it is possible to issue WO to airplane pilot, although it's somewhat different with standard WO). And sure some of these members are officers.

[Lanceman]

I really struggled with ranks until I realized that all of the Inner Sphere militaries use a rank system that is more in line with modern British ranks rather than the United States system I'm used to. The biggest difference being the importance of the corporal. In the US, corporal is a speed bump on your way to sergeant: while a junior non-com technically, it's still a very junior rank. However, in the British armed forces there's a potentially huge gap between becoming a corporal and becoming a sergeant, and that sergeant position you finally get is more senior than the US equivalent. To put it simply: The British have corporals as tank commanders, this would be unthinkable in the US army.

Once that clicks, the dearth of enlisted ranks all across the Inner Sphere suddenly makes a lot more sense. Your military is always going to be private heavy, but Inner Sphere militaries will be *very* private heavy because corporals should make up the cornerstone of their NCO corps, leaving sergeant as a rank more appropriate for Mechwarriors and the like.   

[johnboyjjb]

There is a not insignificant impact to the MekHQ experience by using or not using ranks. But if your unit gets large, it becomes very burdensome to use ranks with any hope towards consistency or vague reality. Tank battalions, units with drop and jumpships, and infantry units have so many people.

Anybody has a great way of doing this easily?

[dgorsman]

There is a not insignificant impact to the MekHQ experience by using or not using ranks. But if your unit gets large, it becomes very burdensome to use ranks with any hope towards consistency or vague reality. Tank battalions, units with drop and jumpships, and infantry units have so many people.

Anybody has a great way of doing this easily?

Start with your rank system - work it out first, rather than trying to apply it later.  Did that, took a couple of days to sort out (and somehow buggered at LOT of the skill system numbers in the process - still not quite sure how that happened).

For the large groups, like vehicles and infantry, start at the top and assign officers to suit your chain of command.  Then assign vehicle commanders and squad leaders (Sergeants, in my system).  Finally, bulk assign privates/equivalent for the rest.  Later on, newcomers get recruit status, although you might want to direct-promote hired infantry platoons to avoid mass-reassigning people to move in an established CO and squad leaders.

Promotions don't come around every day, just at the end of short contracts or regular intervals (say, every month/six months/year on long garrison contracts), or due to the occasional death.  Start at the bottom, promote recruits to regular enlisted; regular enlisted up if warranted.  If you have junior NCO's serving as vehicle or squad commanders promote them to Sergeant as warranted.  Officers and NCO's/Sergeants get left as-is unless there is a vacancy due to death, retirement, or transfer to handle expansion.

It may sound like a lot, but there isn't that much day-to-day work involved as very few personnel are promoted at any given time.  The 'time in rank' tracking is useful, as is the 'Dates' view on the personnel tab.  For example you can sort by time in service and then rank, and then see who's been a recruit/junior enlisted for the longest, and they're most likely the ones you need to look at.

[txsoldier94]

Here are my ranks.

In my experience in the US Army, I really feel that the attitude of "Up or Out" forcing everyone (eventually) into positions of leadership is highly flawed. Some people are only cut out to be long-service privates or even junior officers, and would never be fitted to higher ranks/positions.

I have tried to bring that concept into my rank structure.

Mik

[ShivanReaper]

Keep mine simple, lance commands or vessel commanders are Captains/Lieutenants depending on skills, Aerospace are Warrant Officers, and everybody else combat rated is skill based for relevant skills , Recruit for 6+, private for 4-5+, corporal for 2-3+, sergeant for 1+, and master sergeant for 0+. 

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

My one is separate ranks and divide the ranks by three sub-rank - (rank), second (rank) and first (rank).

My Private is divided to private, second private and first private, which is equal to private, private first class and specialist respectively.

My Sergeant is divided to sergeant, second sergeant and first sergeant, which is less, equal or higher than sergeant(think about this is around corporal to staff sergeant).

And I have the higher enlisted rank, chief, which covers gunnery sergeant to sergeant major(first chief is equal to command sergeant major of FS, for example).

WO is divided to Warrant Officer(that without the sub rank) and Ensign. Ensign is equal to CWO2~4 of united states.

Officer rank do have cadet, and it does not have any sub rank.

Lieutenant is equal to lieutenant to captain of ground force rank.

Commander is equal to major to colonel.

General is equal to brigadier/commodore to general/admiral.

I want to avoid the separated rank for ground/navy forces, so both ground and naval personnel shares the same rank. And that's why I remove the rank 'captain'. So admirals are called 'general' instead of admiral, while the higher ranked sergeants are called 'chief' instead of either first sergeant or sergeant major. Also CWOs are called 'ensign' instead of WO - despite it's derived from naval officer rank.