I'm not sure the intro box is so era specific as most people think, but it does have a map set before the Jihad. Someone purchasing this set box still has the width & breadth of CGL books available for the entire Jihad, Dark Age, Year of the Star League, etc., without being forced into any specific era. With the MUL, the set is extremely flexible and if it is based circa-3067 ala before the Jihad, but also with a mention of the current timeline, then CGL's (not FanPro or FASA) entire product catalog is still pertinent.
Setting players right before the Jihad (with its proximity to the current year and variety of products) just makes good sense.
Agreed. But let's look at this from the mind of a new player. They get introduced through a Demo Agent, let's say. Demo Agent directs them to the boxed set through their FLGS. They get the boxed set, play some games under the intro rules, read a bit on the background and say "Let's go check out ER: 3062 (or whatever year that was) or the Jihad." And then the massive, massive learning gap rears its ugly head. Double heat sinks, going from three lasers to what, nine? Twelve? Four autocannons to 12, 14 with RACs? MASC, stealth armor, everything else. There's nothing in the intro rules that come even close to what you find simply in 3060, let alone the Jihad...or the Dark Age. While I understand the Starterbooks didn't sell and aren't coming back, you are left in the spot of having no "bridging" product. Do you really believe it to be reasonable and new user-friendly to step straight from the the Boxed Set into just Tournament-rules Total Warfare? You have seen Total Warfare, right? And let's be honest for a second here. Gamers love new stuff. They buy it, many times sight unseen, from companies they like. So when New Player Lisa finishes up her 20th battle using the Intro Box, she looks online and hears about this Era Report: 3145. She buys it, and immediately bogs down in a game that feels completely different and outside of what the Intro Box presented. Heck, let's make it even simpler, setting aside the massive, massive differences from Intro Box to 3145. Let's just go from Intro Box to ER: 3052. Ideally, ER: 3052, as a product on its own, should step New Lisa through the progression to be prepared to look into the tome that is Total Warfare.
But that presumes a great deal. That presumes New Lisa came into the game through an Agent, or found advice on the forums or social media to be specifically directed towards ER: 3052. What happens when the new player runs into one of the many grognards on those forums who says "Don't bother with anything beyond 3025?" Or they don't find the stepping stone product like 3052, and just grab up Total Warfare. Or a million other variations. So, Starterbooks don't sell. And we have a box set pushing a timeline focus close to the start of the Jihad. Why can't said boxed set simply be adapted to say "Here's what we're going to use as our introductory point now. Here's the 3050 Phoenix designs, and the simple rules for them. BTW, if you want some more info on a less complicated, but still highly active, period of raid-based warfare, check out ER: 3039 and the Introductory rules style. Or, if you want a more nuanced and complex timeline point just in the middle of massive interstellar war, pick up Jihad: Blake Ascending, or ER: 3145."
What exactly do you lose with a "3050/Level 2" starting point, to use an old term? You can absolutely gain from it, by keeping the learning curve post-Intro Box smaller while still offering all the same readily available access to the simpler Intro-rules level 3025 environment. I really think it's time to rethink exactly what that Boxed Set is created for. Is it simply another product to sell to the existing userbase, so the vets can have more minis cheap? Or is this really a product meant to bring a new player out of the shadows, get them on the table, and have them look at the newest product (that more likely than not, is going to be past the year 3050)? If it's the latter, I really think the implementation needs to be re-evaluated.
