I finally saved up enough dough to order the new (?) Battle Companies book. I must say, I'm disappointed. Not in the material itself, there's lots of great stuff in there, I love the campaigns and scenarios and modifications you can make to your minis, but the fact that many of the models listed are not available and haven't been for some time. Eg: Guard of the Fountain Court has been OOP for years. While this isn't super detrimental to me personally, (I've been collecting since 2008) I can see how it would be for new players. It has been my assumption that Battle Companies is intended as an excellent way to get into the hobby with any force. It seems this is not the case.
If you haven't yet bought this book,
caveat emptor.