Why is there no such thing as winches for combat/support vehicles?

[acksed]

We have Lift Hoists, but those... lift. A Hitch is explicitly for hooking up trailers.

Combat engineering and utility vehicles the world over have, and have always had, a winch to pull things. "Lifting is the answer, myomer and BattleMech arms..." Yes, of course, but the utility and ubiquity of a drum of steel rope attached to a motor is undeniable. It's cheap and low-tech, and every vehicle that's thinking of going off-road should have the option.

"It's just fluff. Like, a BattleMech Recovery Vehicle has one. You can say it has a winch if you want."

I can. What I want is the formal, explicit ability to fit a Small, Medium or Large Winch part to vehicles, and have it take up mass and space as an integral part of the vehicle. Make me decide between that extra MG to protect the crew of combat engineers versus actually adding more capability. The fact that I can't, not even as a Design Quirk like the Hitch, is a very odd gap.

[AlphaMirage]

What would you want it to do in the game? I mean I know what Winches do but Lift Hoists and Hitches have assigned things that they do.

I can make some guesses on capability moving infantry and vehicles (including Mechs) up or down high elevations but it would need to have a speed of transfer and a maximum weight plus probably something like needing a turn to deploy stabilizers

[Simon Landmine]

And with each turn being only ten seconds ...

[idea weenie]

What would you want it to do in the game? I mean I know what Winches do but Lift Hoists and Hitches have assigned things that they do.

I can make some guesses on capability moving infantry and vehicles (including Mechs) up or down high elevations but it would need to have a speed of transfer and a maximum weight plus probably something like needing a turn to deploy stabilizers

Sounds like you will need fan rules to handle this, with a time-frame of a semi-strategic scale (minutes aka AT2r turns, rather than Battletech turns).

IIRC someone else also tried this, but was suggested to go back from winch they came.  Might have been me

[Col Toda]

A lift/ hoist permits to lift 50 percent mass for 1 or drag more .  : 2+  100 percent so the Tunbo VTOL  which mass 56 tons can fly over grab a 112 ton object and fly away with it . So it can pick up an Atlas and fly away with it .

Switch the engine on a Buffalo hover transport to be lighter added a hoist and made it a flatbed .lets you haul away 40 tons at speed

[Sartris]

how am i supposed to play "repo the demolisher" without a winch?  :D

[RifleMech]

I would say it's a matter of fluff. Lifting or pulling you're still moving the unit. Might need to tweak the dragging rules so a unit with a Lift/Hoist can pull another unit instead of needing to units to drag one.

My problem is that they only come in one size. It'd be nice if there were smaller ones. So I could send a pickup to retrieve BA or something.

As for Hitches, combat vehicles have quirks. Support vehicles have chassis mods.

[Starfury]

The same reason why we don't have harpoon guns/tow cables/mech polearms/submunitions for Thunderbolt missiles/orbital "God" rod kinetic kill satellites yet. Because no one invented the rules for them.

As for repoing the Demolisher, mechs have hands and lift hoists, then pull up a Battlemech recovery vehicle and move the Demolisher onto the truck.