Players are on one of seven teams. The map is divided into squares roughly 300 meters across. You claim a square for your team by being in it and hearing the mesh from it. Teams take squares from each other. A season runs six months and the team holding the most squares at the end wins — but every calendar month inside it has its own winner and its own honors, so there is always something close to play for. See the results.

You claim a square by reaching the mesh from inside it. Each mesh node your ping reaches is worth a tenth of a point, up to one point per ping — and a ping that reaches nobody claims nothing, because being somewhere is not enough.

Squares change hands when a team out-scores whoever is holding one, scores fade over time so held ground has to be revisited, and a square that just changed hands is protected for fifteen minutes.

The exact numbers, the cooldowns and every other mechanic are in the rules.

There's a weekly net on Wednesday evenings, 17:00 to 23:59 Boise time. Checking in during that window earns your team 25 points, on top of any ground you hold — a check-in before 17:00 or after midnight doesn't count.

You can check in once per net. Posting five times doesn't earn five times — it earns once, same as everyone else.

Turn up week after week and each check-in is worth more, from 25 points up to 50 for a run of six nets or longer. Miss one and you start again — though a week where the net doesn't happen at all costs you nothing. The rules have the full table.

Points count toward your team's total alongside squares, so a night on the net is a real contribution whether or not you ever leave the house. Wardriving and checking in are two ways to play, not two kinds of player. People who take ground are Wardrivers and people who work the net are NetOps, but that's flavour, not a class you pick — do both and you'll show up on both leaderboards.

To be credited, your radio has to be registered to you. On Meshtastic that's your node ID. On MeshCore it's your contact ID, which MeshMapper binds for you automatically if you wardrive, or you can pick your node from the list when you join.

A six-month season is a long time to wait to find out how you did, so each calendar month closes with its own result. A month is judged on that month alone — ground taken and points earned between its own dates — not on the season standings, so falling behind early never puts the next month out of reach.

Alongside the team standings, each month hands out honors — for taking the most ground off other teams, winning the most back, claiming squares nobody had ever claimed, getting furthest past the towns, and working the weekly net. Every one of them is defined in the rules.

Registration and MeshMapper setup happen on the join page. Join MeshWars to get started.

MeshWars is currently scoped for the western US and Texas. If you'd like to join the fun or need help, please reach out to malice in the Intermountain Mesh Discord.

The outline is the live play area, read from the server — pings outside it are not scored. Open the board.

The mesh communities MeshWars is played on, and the projects it's built with.

• Meshtastic The open source mesh radio project the Meshtastic board is built on.
• MeshCore The open source mesh radio project the MeshCore board is built on.
• MeshMapper The wardriving app that sends your position to MeshWars.
• MeshView The public Meshtastic packet data the Meshtastic board is built from.
• FREQ51 — The Intermountain Mesh Meshtastic community The Meshtastic community MeshWars is played in.
• Mountain West Mesh — MeshCore community The MeshCore community MeshWars is played in, and the directory both check-in identity and the join page's node picker draw from.
• GitHub MeshWars is open source. This is the source code running the site, not a related project.