The boxset for example aims for high quality with nice maps and good figures, and in that regard it's been well received by fans if no one else.
Who, I've gleaned, represent most of the market for the Box Sets, not new players. Getting 24 'Mechs for $60 is more attractive to longtime players trying to fill out their third regiment, or whatever, than a player just starting out. For them, $60 is a pretty substantial ask. Look around the industry--the trend is toward making intro products an impulse-level buy. D&D has a $20 starter, Shadowrun went to a beginner box and an advanced box, Warmachine has a $40 starter box. Even GW tried to make Age of Sigmar accessible by releasing (very short) basic rules for free.
Yes, there are exceptions--especially if you equate BT with one of the true big-box board games like Twilight Imperium or something. But that's a much less apt comparison than the mini games. (Starts praying we don't have to rehash "what type of game is CBT" for the 4,500th time.)
But it's perpetually out of print
I realize the Beemer I wear is going to make me sound like a CGL apologist, but: this has been the vibe running through this entire thread, and it's not really true. The box set has been out of print for a combined total of a little over a year out of the last 15. The difference is that, this time, the state of affairs is dire enough to warrant a discussion (at high levels, not this thread) about what form the introductory BattleTech product should take.
Because despite the several anecdotes we've heard from newer folks upthread, BT can no longer afford (literally, afford) to win hearts and minds three or six at a time. The Intro Box in its current state has not succeeded in bringing on rafts of new players. "Yeah, because it's never available." See previous three paragraphs.
So players have a rulebook which has not one but three levels of the rules along with all the minutiae that comes with it. One can argue that if they were aiming for a quicker playing battletech game, they got it, but if they were aiming for a modern-style miniatures game, they missed it.
Ding ding ding. This is why I said upthread that my intent would not be to simply kill CBT and say AS is the sole BT system now. AS no longer what it was originally intended to be--and probably never was that, I'm learning--and it's an imperfect vehicle to "save" BT.
AS has essentially become just a faster horse. What we need is a car.
One last note: some folks have started to conflate the idea of "faster" rules with "simpler" rules, and I don't think that's quite right. Sure, BT would be faster if you reduced, say, all weapons fire from one side to a single roll. That's an extreme, but the point is that I actually don't think a super-simplified game would be any more effective in keeping players' interest than an unnecessarily complex one.
What I've been pondering on my commutes all week is how to create a BT game that's "hookier" than what we have now, takes less time on average to play, but is deep enough ("deep" not meaning thousands of pages of rules!) to maintain players' interest AND is financially successful.
Crass as it sounds, I'd settle for just the last thing. Let Chess be the perfect "minutes to learn, lifetime to master" game. I'd settle for a BattleTech line that's financially viable.
