Hello, new guy here...

[Unwise]

I dunno - Combat Mission was orginally only available on-line, but after word-of-mouth and positive reviews drove the demand through the roof, it made its way to the retail shelves.

That said, an actual box is a fairly big investment - though I suspect the manual wasn't cheap - and Shrapnel might not be willing to take the plunge, resoning that the wave of new players from the reviews might have reached its peak anyway.