Sorry that is your distributors in the UK, not Catalyst. When you can still find the Lance Packs on sale in the States and other countries- and definitely online- several years after they were produced its not the production runs which is what Catalyst controls. I want to say that Catalyst is now out of 2 or 3 of the Lance Packs and that was the problem with them, the lack of 'velocity of sales' which left money tied up in product that was not available for other things.
But at the same time we have Warmahordes, Dark Age, Malifaux, etc. All readily available and off the shelf and not in limited supply. The Lance Packs are an example, but the other box sets suffered from a similar fate, you either got them quickly or they vanished into the aethir. The Lance Packs may have sufffered from poor sales, but can that not be put down to a lack of advertising and people simply not knowing about the game or universe? You have to remember that back then BT was still in a period of relative obscurity amongst the hobby community. Recently though we have had MWO, Battletech Online and MW5's announcement which have acted as gateways to get the universe and name out there, which will hopefully help the game sell.
But frankly a fixed and constant-running starter setwould make it a lot easier to get into the game anyway. Right now Steve and Jim might hear about this really cool mecha game but how do they get in? Well they go down to their FLGS but there are no starter sets, so they go online. A quick google reveals multiple different starter sets, all of which are either sold out or being sold for a ludicrous price, so instead Jim and Steve focus on finding the rules. A little more googling reveals a lot of different PDF's and books with different titles and things called TRO's, whilst a search on RP turns up expensive metal figures that make it look to the newbie as though they are going to have to shell out a lot for a force (remember few beginners realise you only need 4 mechs a side). So instead Jim and Steve go back to their FLGS and purchase the latest GibsmoneyWorkshop giant stompy bots starter set and start playing that instead. Not because they dont want to play BT but because it is easier to get into and readily available. And after a while they talk themselves out of wanting to play BT because they have invested too much money in GW ExpensiveStompyBotsGame
TM.
Now if there was a starter set readily available in the above scenario things would be different. Jim and Steve would perhaps buy it between them and split the contentse, or buy one each. They would play a bit, have fun and then look to expand. Armed with a knowledge of what to do and where to start they would look at the factions they like, pick up the appropiate TRO's and Record Sheet packs and buy the models they are after, safe in the knowledge that they only need a few to have a force.
There, everyone wins.
Anyway, rambling tangent aside, I hope that the lightning fast sales are indicative to CGL of the games popularity and leads to them printing more sets, and opening up the market to new shores. It would be nice to have a hard copy of the rules on hand, and actual map sheets as well. Not to mention the mini's look gorgeous. I know that if they become available again over here I will be buying a copy of each.
