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I'm interested in building a US Parachute based army. My inspiration is coming mostly from the TV series Band of Brothers.

Beyond buying the main rulebook and the US Parachute Company set; what else should I buy to get started? I'm not sure as to the common pts. values armies are played at or if the company set contains enough models to field an army by itself.

Any tips are well appreciated.

D-1 has US Airborne army briefings in it. Some of the Market Garden books will probably have US Airborne briefings too.

Do youthink I need those expansions to start off with, or are there briefings in the main rulebook.

Also what types of extra stuff should I buy to complement my Company boxed set? I was looking at the P-40 or P-47 models for maybe some air support. I honestly don't know anything about the game mechanics yet though.

I ordered the main rulebook and the US Parachute Rifle Company today. Can't wait to get it and start painting.

There are no lists/briefings in the main rulebook whatsoever, so you will need at least one. D-1 is pretty cool but the market garden books will probably be even cooler when they come out over the next couple of months. I am not sure if they have the US para list though so you'll have to keep an eye on their contents when they actually arrive. D-1 will probably have the most in depth information and also has a painting guide in it. It has info and lists for the 82nd and 101st US airborne divisions too, so if either of those match the band of brothers ones then that is the book for you.

Air support generally works more often than not as a threat than an actual offensive option, but the models are very cool and good fun to paint, and should fit nicely in theme with a paras list. P47s are allowed as an option for the paras (as well as P38 but not P40). I have my D-1 book here so I'll type up what you can use:
Para HQ
Para Rifle Platoon
Para machine gun platoon
Para mortar platoon
Para field artillery battery (M1A1 75mm)
Para engineer combat platoon
You can also have glider versions of the above
Glider recon platoon
Glider anti tank platoon
Tank platoon (m4, m4a1, m4a3 shermans or m5a1 stuarts) OR
Tank destroyer platoon (m10 3" GMC) OR
AA artillery self propelled (m16 MGMC) platoon
Cavalry recon platoon (m8 armoured cars)
Chemical mortar platoon
Field artillery battery (m2a1 105mm)

There are no briefings in the main rulebook and no Airborne briefings in Fortress Europe (usually the best purchase for beginners). D-1 is the book you need if you want to do Airborne.

I'm not totally familiar with the US Airborne briefings but aircraft can be unreliable as they turn up as reserves. Probably best to look at the briefing(s) before buying any more models.

Will do.

Thanks for the advice. Now all I have to do is try to find people to play against. Probably I'll se most of my action at cons.

look for yahoo fan groups and players at the FOW forum you shouldnt have a hard time finding players at all.
we have over 100 members at the New England FOW yahoo group with players from all over not just NE.