I don't understand some oddities in the salvage system of Campaign Operations

[Mostro Joe]

I've read on pag.215 of the CO book, that when a battle is over the side that controls the battlefield can recover the hardware that can can still be repaired and used. And it's ok and logical (I've seen photos from WWII of entire American tank platoons equipped with Panzers!).

But I've found some oddities in the rules and again, I want to know if someone that plays more than me can give some opinions.

The first rows of page 215 read "To remove an individual unit from the field requires a 'mech to drag it off, or a vehicles with sufficient empty cargo capacity to carry it off". It's clear. BUT just a few rows down we read "Each two 'mechs or vehicls can together recover one unit (for 'Mechs see Draggin a Mech p.97 TO:AR).

So... it is sufficient one 'mech ro recover a unit or we need two?  this rule contradicts itself in just 6 rows!

It is not the only problem with that: I can understand a vehicle with carry abilities, like the 'mech recovery vehicles we see in TRO:3060, but how can a generic vehicle carry away a 'mech? This few rows says that a mech and a vehicle can drag away a unit from the battlefield pointing the reader to another book. But in Tactical Operations the rule to drag mechs does not tak about vehicles!

And anyway, how can a generic vehicle drag away a mech? In the same paragraph we see that a vehicle can tow another one only if the former is a tractor. That makes sense, but why then immediately it is said another thing, saying that any vehicle can drag away other units, even mechs, with the help of other mechs?

Perhaps this paragraph needs an errata?

By the way, this sub-chapter says that to recover hardware after a battle, the player has to use the very same mant/rep cycle of the battle, or he cannot try that later. It is not strange that dragging away a (let's say) damaged tank or crippled mech is doable only the "evening" of the battle? The day after, or I could say even the day after tomorrow I think could be still good enough for that (except for some extreme planet weather conditions, but that could be a special case I suppose)!

And again, the units that should be employed to recover hardware from the battlefield cannot have partecipated in the previous battle. That’s ok, but that means that every battletech lance or company should be accompanied by specialized vehicles or tech squads, because they have to immediately rush and intervene after the dust settles. If a battle is over, and there are no support personnel in the immediate  vicinity, everything on the battlefield is left there to rot? I think that if a battle is over, and there is something really special, that can be recovered even the day after when a specialized group is alerted and sent there to make the job (if the battlefield is still kept of course).

So, I find strange that a battlefield can be salvaged only the very same day of the battle and I think that there is confusion in how the units can be effectively recovered.

[AlphaMirage]

External cargo is a thing so if you have a lift hoist and say a Uni a single mech can drag another away at an acceptable speed. Trailers too can drag mechs off singly with a powerful enough engine, it is the Battlemech Recovery Vehicles schtick. The paired one would be used when two vehicly didn't have enough salvage crews nearby as they just litter carry a unit away between them by grabbing its limbs or hooking tow lines to it because they can't load themselves but they can load each other.

[Lanceman]

You're getting too caught up in "rules during an active tabletop game" and rules between games. `Mechs can drag `Mechs during a game because it can easily be accomplished in a 10 second turn. A vehicle cannot because it requires hooking up tow cables over the course of minutes. You don't have this kind of restriction in a post-game recovery period. The text there is basically just a way of restricting players from salvaging everything.

...battlefield can be salvaged only the very same day of the battle.

This is not quite right. The battlefield can be salvaged during your repair cycle. The default is indeed a single 8-hour cycle between scenarios, but it's really dictated by the operations tempo of the campaign. Your campaign might have one week between scenarios, and in that case you get seven 8-hour periods for repair and salvage. Once your cycle is over you are back at combat operations and your support troops will be packed up and ready to move. If you're playing with some kind of strategic map where you control geography, then you and your players might agree to allowing some supporting elements to stay behind in that area to pick at the remains a little longer.

Remember, Campaign Operations in general is more about establishing guidelines you help you craft your campaign and less hard and fast rules.   

[Mostro Joe]

`Mechs can drag `Mechs during a game because it can easily be accomplished in a 10 second turn.

No, I'm talking about the salvage section of the Mentainance and repair chapter, pag.214. There is nothing there about operations during combat.
And again, the text is confuse. It says that a mech can recover a unit, then it says immediately after that you can recover a unit for each pair of mechs or vehicles you emply. And these MUST NOT be units involved in the previous battle.

This is not quite right. The battlefield can be salvaged during your repair cycle.

The battlefield can be salvaged only during the repair cycle of very same turn you fight. This is said in the rules in pag.214 " Once the current maintenance/repair cycle ends, nothing more can be recovered from the battlefield".

Once your cycle is over you are back at combat operations and your support troops will be packed up and ready to move. If you're playing with some kind of strategic map where you control geography, then you and your players might agree to allowing some supporting elements to stay behind in that area to pick at the remains a little longer.

If I create a strategic turn of a week, and I have mant/rep cycle of 8 hourse per day, that is irrilevant if I don't have support units ready And page 135 says that "no unit may be given more that one order in a strategic turn". So If I can't give an order to my units to move on the battlefield to recover hardware, the actual mant/rep cycle will be over and the spoils are gone.

And anyway, If I can set up a strategic turn to be longer than one day, so to have multiple mant/rep cycles, what is the need of the "Repair" non-combat order?

The point is, I don't care if I have one day of cycle or more days of cycle, what I'm saying is that the recover and salvage on the battlefield can be made only during the current cycle. And If I don't have units to do it immediately, the spoils are gone!

And I am saying that the rules to recover units from the battlefield are confusing.