We've previously talked about army building, so this post expands upon that. It's not just about what to get, though, but also when, with a little bit of why.
Remember that it all ultimately depends on your chosen Legion as well as your preferred Rite(s) of War (RoW).
I'll assume that the core of your army will be a box or three of Betrayal at Calth (BaC). Therefore, the main focus of this post will be the Space Marine Legions – but some information may still be relevant for other factions.
The Forge World Web Store
Let's first examine the Forge World (FW) site. It has sections for Warhammer 40,000, The Horus Heresy, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and Modelling Supplies by the top menu. Our section of choice is obviously The Horus Heresy.Everything is neatly organized into sub-sections on the sidebar (or so it seems; more on that later). "The Horus Heresy" is our main tool for just showing products for our chosen army ("Legiones Astartes" for everything Space Marine, and so on). We could further define our search by choosing different "Force Organisations" and/or "Unit Types" and "Vehicles". Easy enough, right? Well, for the most part.
Here's the catch: some stuff is hard to find this way. For instance, FW offers "Command Upgrade Sets" (two Vexillas, two Nuncio-vox backpacks and helmets, two Sergeant helmets) for the different Power Armour marks (III, IV, VI – there are none for II and V, for some reason). You'd expect to find these under "Force Organisation": "HQ". But the only "Command Upgrade Set" there is the Mark VI version. You'll probably need Mark IV though, so be aware of that. [I'm not posting links, as the links depend on your region, and switching regions will delete any search results and/or your shopping cart. Just search for the products directly by copy/pasting the product name; the correct names that'll take your to that specific product are printed bold.]
A note on the "Legions": if you choose one of the 18 available Legions in the sidebar, you will only see products that are specific to this Legion. But no Legion will use just their own stuff.
The Essentials
One box of BaC comes with enough material to build three whole squads. Why three? Because that's the number of Sergeant helmets you get (and Vexillas, although you don't need those for all squads). There are two reasons to get a "Legion MkIV Command Upgrade Set": First, if you are building many small units (Tactical Support Squads and Heavy Support Squads). And second, you want to have a few Nuncio-voxes. These aren't in the BaC box, but they are very useful for any army that brings lots of Deep Striking and/or artillery units. Note that your Tactical Support and Heavy Support squad need neither Nuncio-voxes nor Vexillas.You'll also want the "Transfer Sheet" of your chosen faction. FW recently started to re-design their old transfer sheets, and the new ones are amazing (you'll quickly see the whether your army has the new or the old style sheet: if it's new, it costs £16, the old ones cost £13). The new ones include squad markings (Tactical, Heavy Support, Destroyer, and so on), something the old ones were (partly) missing. And they offer a plethora of other markins, including decals for banners. You could forego the banners and get the Legion-specific shoulder pads, but more on that in a second.
Expanding your Legion
Everything else depends on your Legion and/or RoW. For instance, the Imperial Fists have a RoW called "The Stone Gauntlet" where they can take "Phalax Warder" squads as Troops (they're usually Fast Attack). That'd fall under "good to have" (you could kit out BaC Marines as Phalax Warders with the "Imperial Fists Legion Phalax Warder Squad Upgrade Set". As that RoW offers a bonus for units with shields, you could also put the "Imperial Fists Legion Templar Brethren Upgrade Set" to good use. But you need to fill your two compulsory Troop choices with "Breacher Squads" (only available as "Legion MkIII Breacher Siege Squads").Another example: the Iron Hands RoW "The Head of the Gorgon" gives all their tanks the Outflank ability, so you'd probably want to get as many tanks as possible. The "Deimos Pattern Predator" in all its flavours is a good choice here, because a) you can take up to three with a single Heavy Support pick, and b) you want them to Outflank (something your artillery tanks probably won't). Same goes for the "Legion Deimos Pattern Vindicator" and "Deimos Vindicator Laser Destroyer" (remember that a later Black Book allows Vindicators to be taken in units of one to three; that rule is not part of the Red Book, yet) [and please don't ask my why FW is so inconsistent in naming their products].
Style, Substance, and Your Preference
There are Legion specific helmets, shoulder pads and chest armour available for the different Legions, so should you get these to modify your BaC Marines? Well, if you go this route your core units will become rather expensive, don't they? Personally, I leave those rank and file troops largely untouched by additional resin, especially because I prefer the look of the decals compared to the resin Legion symbols, but the choice is up to you. The different "Legion Upgrade Set -Torsos" certainly enhance the Legion-specific look of your troops, and you could get away with just taking some of these instead of one torso per Astartes. Prime candidates for these resin torsos are Sergeants and the bearers of the Vexillas.Accessories and What You (Don't) Need
A big category to enhance your BaC Marines are the weapons, both of the special and the heavy variety. The special weapons come in sets of 10, while the heavy weapons are five per pack. All of these are good choices to add to your BaC Astartes, but beware the old style heavy weapons: FW recently re-designed their weapons to work with the BaC Marines (previously they came without the right hand attached to the weapon, so you would've had to get the right hand from somewhere else (spare BaC Bolt Pistols or Bolters, for instance).Good special weapon choices are the "Legion Volkite Caliver Set" and the "Legion Volkite Charger Set". These weapons are rather similar: the Charger is a S5 Assault 2 weapon, while the Caliver is a S6 Heavy 2 weapon (yes, that's right: your Tactical Support squad would be carrying a heavy weapon of sorts).
You've probably got enough Meltaguns, Plasma Guns, and Flamers from your (two or more) BaC boxes. If not, FW offers sets of these too. If you need just one or two more than you have thanks to BaC, there's the "Space Marine Special Weapons Set", which includes two each of Flamers, Meltaguns, Plasma Guns, and Missile Launcher. These are essentially the same as the plastic versions from BaC, and include the necessary arms for the Missile Launcher.
Depending on your needs, the "Legion Heavy Flamer Set", "Mars Pattern Plasma Cannon Set", or the 30K-specific "Telerca Pattern Volkite Culverins Set" are good choices. Just browse the "Accessories": "Weapons" category, but be mindful of the old style heavy weapons (those that don't have right hand attached).
There's still a use for these old style heavy weapons though: the "Legion MkII Heavy Support Squad", "Legion MkIII Heavy Support Squad", and "Legion MkV Heavy Support Squad" come with arms to hold their heavy weapons on their shoulder. These miniatures work with weapons like the "Legion Missile Launcher Set", the "Legion Plasma Cannon Set", or the "Legion Lascannon Set". Truth be told, some heavy weapons just look better as shoulder weapons, don't you agree? A Missile Launcher held at the waist just looks ... wrong. Additionally, this is a good way to vary the armour marks in your army, as you'll already have plenty of Mark IV Marines.
A note on the Graviton guns: There's a whole set of these available, but the question is why. The prime candidate for these weapon sets are Tactical Support Squads ... but those can't take graviton guns! Breacher squads can take them, but those sets already come with graviton guns. There's still a use for them: Units like the Forge Lord (Consul) or Techmarines can take them, so you could give your "Techmarine in Mk III Armour" or "Techmarine in Mk IV Armour" a graviton gun from the "Graviton Gun Set", leaving you with nine graviton guns for later use ... unless you're playing one of the vehicle-heavy Legions that could make good use of a Forge Lord plus three Techmarines, in which case you might need four graviton guns. It is a good weapon, after all.
Conclusion
Starting my 30K army, I made two mistakes: I ordered a Mark VI Command Upgrade Set and a Graviton Gun Set. Both aren't really needed, so I could've spend that money on other stuff. One common mistake I managed to avoid was getting the still available old style heavy weapon sets for my BaC Marines – but that error would be easy to rectify: just get those "Heavy Support Squads" to carry these heavy weapons.There aren't that many essentials you'll need right off the bat after BaC, and the only thing you'll surely need is the transfer sheet for your faction. But there are may ways to expand. In any case, it's a good idea to plan your purchases, depending on your Legion, RoW, and preferred style of play.
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