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Hey Dakka, I've been looking to expand my IG for a while from its grand total of 19 men so far, and thought it prudent to start in the troops department. I was inclined to do this through getting two 2 squad platoons supported each by a HWS (i.e. a couple of battleforces). However, I was wondering if it would be better to make them as hardened veterans instead. Considering I play against Deathwing and Tau (half infantry gunline, half deepstriking suits) most often, what would be best and how should I equip them?

If you're facing a lot of 3+/2+ saves (DW and Crisis suits) then I'd advise vets as you get more access to the plasma and melta that counters those threats, Platoons rely far more on Lasguns.

However, just vets leaves you very weak to gunlines unless you mech them up or park them behind an ADL. I'd actually suggest a amix of obth eventually, say 2 vet squads and a mech CCS for a mech element and then 2 good-sized platoons.

For platoons, you want a HW in each squad before using dedicated HWS, as they are more durable, better protected and have higher LD for orders and morale.

There's no reason that you can't make the models as hardened veterans and then use them as infantry platoons later. The only real difference is that infantry platoons will use more heavy weapons than the vets, and the vets will use more special weapons than platoons (per points, that is).

If you build them as vets, you can easily field them as infantry platoons later (assuming you have enough models) with lots of special weapons.