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I am thinking of getting one of these to jump start my IG army.

Not sure if I want to go Cadians or Catachans for looks yet but will be running them as vanilla IG/AM
I don't want a big force at once, this army will be two purposed, first a higher level paint job than my marines and secondly a little force to use on the table, I will likely use them as a detachment to my marines anyway rather than play straight IG

Looking at the box contents the following seems to be the easiest/strongest way to build it -

Company Command Squad
Command with bolt pistol and Chainsword
Banner
Vox Caster
2 x Plasmas

Vet squad with 3 grenade launchers and an autocannon, armour upgrade to 4+
Vet Squad with 3 meltas, heavy bolter, armour upgrade to 4+ and a Chimera

Leman Russ battletank

It is a small but nice force that has some surivability can comes in at 601 points so nice level to drop 900 pts of marines with for 1500 games.

EDIT - I am aware that you don't get enough special weapons in the box to build that, luckily my bits box is stuffed with enough guns to do an entire army!

If I can make a suggestion: If you plan on having a heavy weapon team in a veteran squad, I would recommend you put the longer range plasma guns in there so you can have the better range. You can put the meltas in the Company Command Squad so they can serve as a reactionary force in the back field with the meltas. Also, since you're not running a medic, you won't miss the feel no pain save of having them in a veteran squad versus in the Company Command Squad.

Also, consider picking up a Chimera for the CCS, it's a great transport and you can issue orders out of it as well, which is nice. Fairly cheap, and gives you two more heavy weapons (a Multilaser/Heavy Bolter/Heavy Flamer in the turret, and a Heavy Bolter/Heavy Flamer in the hull. I know that throws your points off a bit, but it is worth it.

Hope that helps, and take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

I went the same way as you, taking IG as allies for my SM, to paint them up better than my previous. I'm not that far along with it yet, but:

If you're allying, use it as a platoon. Buy 2 more command squad boxes, as that's where the special weapons come from. These also add more bodies to make a Vet squad with, once you swap-out some infantry to make room for the heavy weapons. You'll have 35 troop bodies and 3 HWS. That's 41 bodies.

Only the Company Command squad gets vets, and the platoon command squad is a good place to put flamers.

Company command squad with 2 Plasma guns and a HWT.
Platoon Command squad in the Chimera, with heavy-flamer and 2 flamers and a vox, or 3 flamers.
2 10-man Infantry squads, with GL and your choice of HWT each.
Vet squad with Meltas. They're short of a ride, but that comes later. Throw them in a Rhino, if your main force uses them.

It's something you might want to work towards, but the command squad boxes means you might save against buying bitz.
Or, get the command squads anyway, and go with 3 vets, a CCS, but you're left with HWS you might not want to use. These boxes are odd like that.

How I'd do it, and with a little extra cost (just one box):

Cadian Defence Force( £100) + Cadian Armoured Fist squad (£35)

This gives you:

36 Infantry (including HWT models)
Command Squad
2 Chimeras
Russ

A list I'd make form this:

Company Command Squad, 3x Meltagun, Carapace Armour
Chimera

Veteran Squad, 3x plasmagun, Carapace Armour
Chimera

Platoon Command Squad, 4x Flamers(by using the HWT in the Infantry Squads below, you free up a few guys for making this with IS/CCS leftovers)

Infantry Squad, meltagun, Lascannon
Infantry Squad, meltagun, Lascannon

Leman Russ Vanquisher, Plasma Cannons, Lascannon

Comes to around 720 points, with a few more upgrade you could hit 750 easily and have a good list. You have a platoon for sitting and scoring and shooting, 2 mobile and hard-hitting mech units, and a lethal-against-anything Russ. Throw in an ADL to hit 800, and another Chim-vet squad to hit close to 1000.

If I were to start Cadians, this is how I'd do it.