Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard/Armoured Battlegroup (section)

==Should you bother?==
First thing you need to consider with the Armoured Battle Group is if you actually want to run them.

7th edition allows you to go 'unbound' allowing for a similar effect as the battle group with none of that "[[Forge_World#Common_Misconceptions|hum, is that a forge world list?]]" squinting and questionable acceptability, (which sadly may be the defining attribute), so what does the battlegroup offer over standard guard?

Well first thing is obvious, "Objective Secured" on a Leman Russ, allowing you to muscle control of objectives unless another troop with the rule is nearby. The problem is that Leman Russ tanks need to roll up the board to secure the objective, right into melta range. Also, they are very expensive to have baby sitting a home field objective (though admittedly they do have the range for it but at most point levels short of maybe 2,000 you will need everything you got rolling up to get objectives), and further if you're rolling up the board to get objectives you will have to leave you side and rear armor exposed unless you've killed everything, and I mean EVERYTHING as you go, and even your weak points will still be wide open to deep strikers, and with AV10 on the rear, a drop pod of sternguard won't need combi meltas to wreck you. However, if you're daft enough not to take your tanks in pairs so you can bolt them back to back and abuse the squadron rules to have effectively a 14 13 14 vehicle, you may want to reconsider your choice of army. 

The "why play" section talks about demolishers on objectives, but the fact is that such a formation would be defeated with guns with ranges longer then 24", or by throwing more then two units at them at a time since tank squadron can't split fire (something the guard can do with HQ commanders). Also having that many short ranged tanks in a single squadron means that as you roll up the board, you honestly not doing that much with those big cannons.

Like the real world, you need infantry to secure ground behind the tanks if only so you don't have a tank babysitting a home field objective and the battle group has the worst infantry in the game. No hyperbole. They may be just like the guard, but they can't be taken in guard style numbers to compensate for that, not to mention other toys you lose out like Ogryns, Ratlings or any form of psyker.

So in return for these weakness, what do you get? 

Special shells, tank hunting rule for vets, co-axial guns,Tank orders that might be a bit weaker then the guards version (only rerolling cover I can confidently say is better) in built imperial navy support, which vanilla guard get as well, heavy artillery that GW stripped out that, again forge world gives back to the guard, basically every unique toy the battle group has is also given to the standard guard except the shells and Battle group only special characters. 

Literally the <strike>only</strike> best reason to play the battle group is for the Objective Secured Leman Russ, and as covered Leman Russes have issues securing objectives compared to a infantry platoon with five chimera mounted infantry squads, which are faster and each is more disposable and able to sit on a objective not doing anything much easer.

The second best reason is the almost unique ability to apply twin linked blast, area of effect Instant Death USR ap2 hits to everything in the game through the Vanquisher's beast killer shells. With nearly every army in 7th have either a threatening or downright disruptive MC or high toughness choice, the beast killer Vanquisher provides IG with a sturdy and fairly reliable hard counter which happily doubles as a solid anti vehicle option.

Also you get the ability to bring loads of Leman Russes, and loads of heavy ordnance, which would otherwise be capped to 3 (or 9 if you squad 3 russes which is bad move since 3 russes firing at same target is overkill). Basically what that means for 7th edition Armored Battlegroups is this: You cannot fight alone. You need allies, or you need to be ally army to something that has plenty of multiroles, but lack the sheer amount of pieplates and impact that Armored Battlegroup can bring.


Speaking about allies below...