Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard/Armoured Battlegroup

Why Play Imperial Guard Armoured Companies

Do you like Tanks? I mean REALLY like Tanks? Then this list is for you! All tanks, all the time.

Armoured Battlegroup Arsenal

It's Imperial Guard tanks! They are big, boxy and gothic, so they need big, boxy and gothic upgrades. Armoured Battlegroup delivers.

• Mine Plough: Dozer Blade on steroids. Not only does it help by allowing you to pass through dangerous terrain at any speed, it also allows you to smash through unlucky soldiers with tank shock. However, it's nowhere near as effective as destroyer blades or the formerly almighty Deffrolla (Rest in Peace Deffrolla, you were good until 7th), with S2 and only D3+1 hits.
• Artificer Hull: +1HP. Helps if your opponent tries to glance your tank to death, but near useless against melta and railguns.
• Armoured Track Guards: 4+ save against immobilization. Cheap, but tends to be ineffective, as you do not get immobilized that often.
• Improved Comms: Extra 6" of order reach. With 24" already you won't need it, unless you have some devious plan which includes outflanking a Demolisher squadron (for which you need to roll a random warlord trait anyway).
• Anti-grenade Mesh: 5+ invuln against grenades. Good on short range tanks, which get krak grenaded a lot, and pretty useful against haywire grenades, but again useless against melta.
• Anti-aircraft-mount heavy stubber / storm bolter: Garbage. Can only be useful on glancing AV10 flyers and lucky-wounding FMCs. Avoid.

Specific tank upgrades

• Illum Shells (all LR's with shell cannons): Big blast searchlights. Not really worth it, considering you have searchlights on Chimeras and Hellhounds, it's generally inadvisable to sacrifice a tank's main gun firepower in order to use these shells.
• Augur Shells (LR Conqueror): Entropic Touch! Woo!...but not really, it's far worse than the Necron's equivalent. Works only on pen/glance rather than hit, and the gun itself is just S8, so it can't be used to drop almighty AV14 down. Well, against AV12 it can be good, especially considering the Conqueror's built-in co-axial storm bolter.
• Infernus Shells (LR Battle Tank): Big blast of heavy flamer hits. Make those Hellhounds cry in tears of jealousy.
• Beast Hunter Shells (LR Vanquisher): Instant. Fucking. Death. Known to fuck up Tyranid and Daemon armies (even more than usual). Bonus points for one-shotting Mephiston, Dreadknight or the Swarmlord.
• Co-axial Heavy Stubber (LR Vanquisher): Coaxial bonuses are great. Take it! There is also a storm bolter variant, but for more points, worse range and fewer shots, you'd have to be a filthy fucking xeno-loving heretic to prefer it over the stubber.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Company Command Tank: Your command vehicle, the company command tank, has the ability to give orders to your other tanks in the same way that infantry command squads do, allowing them to better smash the enemy. Your command tank can be any of the standard Leman Russ variants, and comes with an improved BS. However it is expensive, so don’t go overboard giving it upgrades.
  • Armoured Company command/commissar tanks can bring their own special BS4 version of the Vanquisher, with a co-ax Heavy Stubber giving TL BS4 shots out to 36", and Beasthunter shells, a S8 AP2 small blast causing instant FUCKING death, and an extra hull point. You're allowed to ally an AC list to Codex IG: - Bring one Vanq command Russ (req HQ), one Vanq commissar Russ (opt Elite - plus all IG units within 6" of hull have Ld10. Stop your cowards fleeing off the objectives), and then will your required troop slot on that other Russ you were going to bring anyway... but with better upgrade options. Now you have 3 Russes with all of your Heavy Support slots free for some interesting alternatives. (Super mega-death loadout: BS4, 4HP, TL Beasterhunter/AT Vanq shells, Lascannon, 2 Multimeltas. 250pts but you will fuck any goddamn tank or MC that looks at you sideways. Just don't get shot up the arse. Place commissar tank (Ld10 bubble) near cowardly heavy weapons teams in a defence line fortification for a maximum dakka outpost)

• Armoured Fist Command Squad: It's a Platoon Command Squad in a Chimera. You can also upgrade it to be a Company Command Squad.

• Salamander Reconnaissance Commander: It's fragile and poorly-armed, but it's not designed to shoot or be shot at. What it is designed for is causing massive amounts of Not as Planned. In particular, you can use its built-in auspex to reduce enemy cover saves, then order concentrated fire to mess with them even more. Suddenly those weaboo 3+ cover save tanks aren't that imposing.

Special Characters

• Captain Obadiah Schfeer: A contradiction. He's riding in a Vanquisher, but he doesn't have Beasthunter Shells and his Warlord Trait penalizes enemy Leadership tests in a 12" bubble, which makes him an expensive command tank that's outperformed by specialized command tank builds.

• Colonel 'Snake' Stranski: A Command Squad in a Chimera, which counts as Scoring, and the Colonel can fire his twin-linked plasma pistols without using up one of the tank's fire points. Cool, but not really worth the cost.

• General Grizmund: Fantastic. Very expensive, but he can give a Troops Russ squadron BS4 for no additional cost and friendly models within 12" reroll the first missed roll to hit every Shooting phase. Park him and some friends in a spot with good vision and blast the living daylights out of anything that pokes its head above ground.

Elites

• Commissar Tank: Basically a CCT with orders replaced with Lord-Commissar-esque Ld-10 bubble. Even without orders BS4 Lemans are great. See Command Tank entry for details of extreme nid destruction, and useful ways to hold your home objectives with the Ld10 bubble these guys give.

• Destroyer Tank Hunter Squadron: Destroyers aren't bad per se. They have a Strength 9, 72" range, Ordnance cannon (well, laser array), which will demolish most of what it hits in one shot, and now that it's twin-linked, it's even better than the Vanquisher (10% more likely to damage AV14 and it gets better from there). The problem is cost; the Destroyer runs 25 points more than the Vanquisher, which is already a pricey tank suffering from a meta problem named after itself. In an edition dripping with high-HP vehicles and monstrous creatures, a unit that fires just one shot, no matter how reliable that shot is, tends to fall by the wayside. In a more casual list, it's right at home; throw some Camo netting on it, park it in a corner of the field in some nice cover (the tank's low profile will easily net it a 50% obscured cover save, which the camo netting boosts to 3+) and it will be a reliable source of damage for the whole game.

• Atlas Recovery Tank: Ironically, the Atlas is kinda terrible at what it's made to do, which is towing tanks. Basically, you can tow an immobilized tank d6+2", or d3+2" if it's a Heavy vehicle. You can also tow immobile gun platforms and the like. For 85 points, this is basically counter-productive. Sure, you can get into better positions, but it's not like you'll get there very fast. Also, both tanks can only make Snap Shots while towing, not to mention you're putting another potential kill point on the table while lessening the possibility of killing something. However, there is one really big caveat that makes it worth considering: Tech-Priest Enginseers within 6" can reroll failed Blessings of the Omnissiah repair rolls, and they can make a second repair attempt, which can be on a different tank than the first one. This makes Enginseers incredibly efficient, but you're still dropping 85 points on a fairly pointless tank.

• Armoured Fist Storm Trooper Squad: Stormtrooper squad in mandatory Chimera. Can't deep strike, but otherwise the same.

• Tech-Priest Enginseer: Here to fix your shit. Hide him behind a tank wall, give him servitor retinue and pair him with Atlas for maximum effectiveness. You can get two per FOC, and they do not steal your Elite slots. That and they can take a Trojan which buffs your tanks.
  • Trojan Support Tank: It's basically a 35 pt. Chimera with AV 10 on all sides and only six transport slots. It also has the Support Vehicle special rule; a single Tank or artillery model within 6" gets the Preferred Enemy (Everything!) USR. It's cool and all, and definitely a good way to tow your Enginseers around, so it definitely merits inclusion, but it's not such an amazing force multiplier as to be an auto-include.

Troops

• Battle Tank Squadron:
• Leman Russ Squadron: Leman Russ. It's a big tank. Holds the proud title of best tank in the galaxy for its size and cost. Side effects include: Templates, lots of dice, lots of AV, lots of choices.In 6th edition, Leman Russ lost "Lumbering Behemoth" rule, and became a Heavy vehicle, instead. This means that you are limited to only 6 inches of movement. However, you can fire all your non-ordnance weapons at the same turn, as if you haven't moved, meaning that non-ordnance Russes (Exterminator, Punisher, Executioner, Eradicator, Vanquisher) are made even more rapetastic, at slight disadvantage of Ordnance ones (Battle Tank, Demolisher). For some reason the non-ordnance Russes have seen some points cost decreased in the new codex, while others stayed the same (or even gotten a points increase as is in the case of Demolisher). Remember this, and kit out your tanks accordingly.

• • Leman Russ Battle Tank: Though it comes in many flavors, the basic tank is the most useful. With its S8 AP3 72" gun and thick armor, it is good against anything for decent points. This is your runner-and-gunner, your go-to tank, and the majority of your Leman Russ pool at any time should be these. Kit 'em out with heavy bolters all around, since you are going to be forced to snap fire non-cannon weapons, so up the volume of fire.In addition, the new codex has granted Tech Priests the ability to give vehicles power of the machine spirit, this could go some ways to allow the vanilla Russ to fire at least one other weapon at full BS. A Leman Russ firing a battle cannon and lascannon at full BS with snap-shots from sponson heavy bolters can be threatening to infantry, vehicles and Monstrous creatures respectively.

• • Leman Russ Exterminator: Armed with a 4 shot twin-linked Autocannon means this thing is death incarnate for 4+ armour and light vehicles. Kit it with 3 extra Heavy Bolters for beautiful infantry shredding. If you feel like it, add Pask - and watch it destroy Predators and Falcon grav tanks with ease, while standing a chance to glance rendingly penetrate Land Raiders (!). While twice the points and not as long-ranged as a Hydra, it's got better front and side armor and isn't hindered by the lack of the Interceptor special rule (so it can shoot at things on the ground, where majority of enemy forces usually are). It doesn't have Skyfire or a Targeting Computer, so it may be lacking in roles usually occupied by Hydra, but you will still put a big dent on anything you do end up hitting.

• • Leman Russ Vanquisher: A Melta (which always provides +1d6 armor penetration) with a devastating range. Thus a bit costly for 1 shot at BS3 (works well with Pask, but only useful against vehicles). Not very useful really considering the amount of melta you should already have, if you use it primarily against vehicles. Give it a Lascannon as well as Plasma Sponson - and you get a unit perfectly fit to fight against Heavy Infantry. Combine with Pask for instant Monstrous Creature solution. Because you are firing 4 guns that get reroll to Wound, at BS4. Don't forget to take a Heavy Stubber to remove that last wound off the enemy Trygon.

• • Leman Russ Eradicator: Kind of a Hellhound that hits worse, is slower but better armored. And you can add a Lascannon for versatility. Strange tank that has a weaker version of Battle Cannon that eats your enemies' cover saves. Consider for Cities of Death games or when fighting cover-camping Tau/Eldar. Can be useful for gunline enemies hiding behind fortifications as well. Now at 120 points making it cheapest Russ off them all. (If you're thinking of taking this for shooting horde units behind cover, scroll down and take a look at the Wyvern. In exchange for 2 less S and AP and a smaller blast, you get 4 shots that reroll to hit and to wound). However, the Eldar Fast Vehicled and Bikes will suffer dearly if they get hit - Eradicators make Dark Eldar cry (as they at best get a 5++ to protect themselves).

• Leman Russ Conqueror Squadron (Forge World): It's kinda light version of Leman Russ Battle Tank - Conqueror turret cannon comes with less range, less blast radius and less strength, but it is heavy and has in-built co-axial storm bolter to boost accuracy in the short range firefights. And unlike regular Lemans it's not heavy, meaning it is not slow as hell. Overall not a good choice, unless you have a lot of BLoS terrain pieces in the table. Though, due to its speed and non-ordnance nature of main gun it totally rock in Cities of Death missions, where regular Ruses tend to stuck in deployment zones doing nothing.

• Leman Russ Annihilator Squadron (Forge World): Another "non-heavy" Leman - this time with twin-lascannon turret. Just like his Predator namesake tend to be overpriced for what it do.

• Siege Tank Squadron:
  • Leman Russ Demolisher: For +20 pts. to the basic Russ you get a cannon that lays waste of everything on the battlefield and immunity vs S4 melee units - though sometimes 24" is too close to the enemy. The Demolisher is tried and true, and should ALWAYS lead the armored charge into the enemy. Works great alone, works even better in threes. You don't really need to upgrade it, since fucking DEMOLISHER CANNON doesn't get much assistance from other weapons, but being able to finish off the scattered survivors by hail of ill-aimed gunfire can also be useful.

• • Leman Russ Punisher: Shares the cons but only few of the pros with the Demolisher (it does keep the additional back armor, which helps). Heavy 20 may sound cool, but on average, you end up with 10 S5 hits with no AP (making it difficult to even glance vehicles to death, but why would you target vehicles anyway?). Everything except Grots is butchered better with the cheaper and better ranged Battle Tank. However, unlike most Russes, it gets better if you sink the points in it: Add a tank commander, and now 13 and 1/3 of those shots hit. Have a psyker and divination nearby, and that goes up to 17 and 7/9ths hits with a commander, 15 without. Add Pask and now you have rending and the ability to reroll penetration, meaning it is easy to glance AV 12 to death. Add on a full triple Heavy Bolter set and a Heavy Stubber, and the machine will reduce to dust anything, from Terminator Squads to full-size Ork Mobs every turn, and will stop 'Nidzilla in it's tracks through sheer dice output. Well, that or you'll be killed by the enemies anti-tank and waste 250 points on something the rest of your army should be doing anyway. Also, by far the coolest looking Russ.

• • • Can also be a fun choice against fliers, if much less cost-effective than the Hydra or Fortifications' Emplacements. When driven by Pask the Punisher becomes an extremely versatile machine, able to successfully engage just about anything, and on average, glance most things AV14 to death.

• • Leman Russ Executioner Not quite as god tier as it once was because the main cannon now has Gets Hot (a 50% chance to remove one of your own hull points (since vehicles have a 4+ saving throw vs. Gets Hot weapons) on a tank that fires between three to five blasts of plasma is still much riskier than it once was, saving throw or no saving throw), but still capable of chucking down sizable amounts of Anti-TEQ hate. However it's now only 155 points, a significant reduction from the last book. Pair with Pask for a blinding plasma blast (see Pask above) for even more hate and to re-roll 1s, making Gets Hot! a lot less of an issue (though this is ill advised, given your HQ will easily bloat itself up to (and possibly past) 500 points since Tank Commanders must take a Squadron of Russes with them) All that said, while no longer the auto-include Russ anymore that it was in the last book, it is still capable of making TEQ heavy armies weep. To be taken with caution as part of a healthy balanced diet of Russes.

• Thunderer Siege Tank Squadron (Forge World): It's Leman Russ chassis with hull-mounted demolisher cannon. Unlike LR Demolisher it has no front/side sponsons, but for some reason it's also NOT heavy - meaning you can move it 12" and even flat out another 6" to get round two shot. Obviously this is your Vindicator, and like all IG vehicles its all around better then his SM analog, due to the combination of superior armor and sufficient speed.

• Armoured Fist Squad: Guardsman in Chimeras. Here to score your objectives. Protect them, because you can't spam a lot of warm bodies like regular guard.

• Armoured Fist Veterans: Better guardsman Chimeras. With proper upgrades they can protect themselves and even dish out some hurt. Still you can't afford to lose them, as your Lemans Russes can't score (why?), despite being troops. Now gain Tank Hunters for free with new FAQ

Fast Attack

• Scout Sentinel Squadron: With such weak armor, most likely they are going to die on the second turn. Fun choice of weapons. Key part here is that they have Scout - so three Sentinels outflanking from the side or scouting into cover blasting away, causing havoc in the enemy ranks, is a good idea. But still - they are going to die. They are open topped. They are going to die. They have 10 armor. They are going to die. They have two Hull Points. They are going to die. But they may as well take a tank or two down with them. If you want to be insane, having Heavy Flamers all around can result in hilarious infantry murder. Otherwise, most of the time you'll take them as a 40 point autocannon on legs since they are cheap and effective against most things.

• Armored Sentinel Squadron: Armored Heavy Weapons Team, practically. Can move around and fire, unlike Heavy Weapon Teams, but you only get one for the price of the whole squad. Can do decent in close combat, stomping on or bogging down the enemy. Now this works only with fearless units without krak grenades or other S6+ weapons (like, say Thousand Sons, gaunts, or Ork boys without klawnob). Even better choice of awesome weapons when compared to Scout Sentinels, such as plasma cannons - though, you can overheat and lose one of the two Hull Points you have, making you even more dangerously paper-thin. Use Lascannon against vehicle, Rocket Launcher or Autocannon if you can't decide what you want to do with them. Never hurts to take Hunter-Killers in case you end up fighting vehicles. Take in threes so they can be generally more efficient in anything you want them to do. 6th ed preview pictures show little change, besides a significant price drop to the unit and weapon upgrades. Officially made amazing (150 points for three Armoured Sentinels with Plasma Cannons.)
  • Remember rules for squadronned walkers : 90° firing arc ( 45° swivel in both directions The rulebooks says 45°, not 45° in both directions ) and resolving hits like infantry. This means that with a 3 ( Or 2 in some conditions ) sentinel squadron you can organise them in a "fan" formation so that the closest to a firing unit is always showing its front ( With AV 12, it means only soft AT weapons and upward can hope damaging you ) and still allow the 3 sentinels to fire at a target.
  • Amazing when going for an army with lots of vehicles as they are both a cheap way to bring devastating weapons on the field ( You may lack in number of weapons if using a lot of vehicles ) and will inevitably need AV to be taken down, AV that will be crucial to your opponent. They have the same AVs as Chimeras and will offer a tough choice to your opponent as to which they should take down.
  • Forge World allow both scout and armored Sentinels to take Multiple Rocket Pods. Big frak blasts does horrible things to infantry blobs, but with 24" range it's too risky even on armored.
  • Vulture Gunship (Forge World):Essentially a 40k Apache Gunship, comes with strafing run USR, nose mounted heavy bolter, and 4 wing pylons that are divided into two sets of 2 pylons that give space for one twin-linked weapon (one pylon on each side) and one set of missiles. This machine is very modular, able to adapt to ANY situation; Green Tide getting you down? Well, instead of two twin-linked weapons, you can actually attach a twin-linked punisher cannon! The ammo boxes do take up the other missile pylons, but twin-linked and BS4 against ground targets means 18 shots hit instead of Leman Russes 10 (on average without Pask). I would personally recommend buying spending too much on all possible weapons and not gluing them in place - maybe use magnets or some other such method, just make sure you can change the Vulture's armament easily to ensure it is never left wanting in a battle. Because the main strength of the Vulture is its adaptability.
  • Vendetta Gunship Squadron:It's basically a flying Predator. Will you still use it? Depends on how you like your anti-air.
  • It should be noted that both the Valkyrie and Vendetta can take a pair of Heavy Bolter side sponsons. In most cases, these Heavy Bolters will rarely be used. In both aircraft, the Heavy Bolters give the crafts some protection on the sides. With Valkyries, the sponsons add an extra bit of anti infantry firepower. On Vendetta's, the Heavy Bolters add weapons that can be disabled in place of the Lascannons. In either case, Heavy Bolter Sponsons are not auto include for either craft.

• Tauros Strike Squadron: Not a fluffy choice for Armoured Battlegroup (ever seen a scout humvee?), however Hellhounds/Infernus shell Battle Tanks tend to be better at burning the shit out of cover campers. Lascannon equipped Venators with HKMs can be good at vehicle sniping though, but you've got more then enough anti-tank in this list

• Salamander Recon Squadron: This thing combines the outflanking tricks of Tauroses/Scout Sentinels with Chimera-level armour and weapons. Overall a good choice, useful for glancing opponents' artillery and vindicators side/rear armor to death.
• Hellhound Squadron: The Hellhound tank variants give you access to Fast Tanks. This has a lot of advantages, as you use them for movement-blocking, tank-shocking, or simply blasting enemies to oblivion. A low profile makes finding cover for it relatively easy, though cover-hugging isn't exactly the best use of this tank. There are three variants, each with a unique turret weapon, and the choice of hull-mounted Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, or Multi-melta. Also, now with 7th Edition, Template weapons passing over fire points on buildings or touching an Open Topped vehicle inflict D6 randomly allocated wounds that are resolved at the strength and AP of the template weapon to units embarked in those transports. Now a must include if you want a cup of your Dark Eldar or Ork opponent's tears.
  • The standard Hellhound is a very handy infantry-killer. If they're not Marine-equivalents (and even they will be hurting once the wounds pile up and they start failing saves) they will die. What's that? You opponent has Rangers/Heavy Weapons Teams/snipers holed up in a building somewhere giving your commanders and high-value units a hard time? The Inferno Cannon laughs at cover. The range of the IC means that you can expect them to hit enemy infantry starting on turn 1 (move 12", fire 12", cover another 8" with flame template). Run in support of longer-ranged anti-tank weapons for popping enemy transports, Hellhounds can also serve to finish off units from disembarked vehicles. In 6th edition fast vehicles can now fire 2 weapons at full BS at cruising speed, so enjoy the possibilities of hull weaponry combinations. Using Creed to outflank a squadron of these is hilarious against horde armies. Do it - that's an order. Was a beautiful piece of trolling against Orks and Tyranids until the new Codex fucked it up. Now the ability to Outflank D3 units of your choice is dependant on a dice roll. At least if you make said roll any Company Commander can do it.
  • The Banewolf sacrifices the extra range of the Hellhound's template for its own poisoned AP3 flamer template. Banewolves will kill any infantry short of Terminators or similarly well-armored units. Their armor and speed give them unparalleled ability to be used for flushing enemy infantry from cover. This said and done, this may be the one variant you can afford to specialize; having a hull mounted flamer gives you the chance to throw two really mean flame-templates. This tank is the epitome of offence over defense - on one hand it can destroy an entire SM tactical squad in one turn. If there is an independent character in the squad, force them to take all the hits for the squad by attacking from their side, melting them alongside anyone else who "Look Out Sir" into their own gooey death. On the other hand - it can easily be put down by a Lascannon head-on. They are well known for making Tyranid and Chaos daemon players cry as you gib their monstrous creatures with as much ease as their cannon fodder. But then again, what doesn't make Tyranids and Daemons (Not anymore since they can just respawn said MC and cannon fodder) cry in 7th edition?
  • The Devil Dog is the last one out, eschewing a short-range flamer, for a Melta Cannon, a blast weapon with the Melta rule. These tanks are great for sending into the center of an enemy armored formation and intimidating your opponent into breaking up, lest he find himself losing multiple tanks! Alternatively, assuming one has reliable long-ranged anti-tank, the Devil Dog can be used for finishing off survivors of destroyed enemy transports. Add a hull-mounted Heavy Flamer, and the Devil Dog can flush troops out of cover (though not as efficiently as the Banewolf). While not a flashy vehicle, it gets the job done. Probably the best variant for most games that includes vehicles on both sides.

Heavy Support

• Hydra Flak Tank Battery: The most cost-effective ground-based anti-air in the game. Love it. Use it. Park it in cover, because enemy flyers WILL try to blast it the turn they come from reserve. Yeah, the lack of Interceptor sucks, but you can't complain for 75 pts.

• Ordnance Battery: Vanilla Basilisks and Medusae.

• Griffon Strike Battery: Cheap, but in this case you get what you pay for. Grossly underarmed by comparison to the rest of your artillery.

• Colossus Bombard Battery: Powerful shot (AP3 and Ignores Cover on a Large Blast), but expensive and comes with a crippling minimum range of 24". Use carefully.

• Armoured Fist Heavy Weapons Squad: Like regular HWS, except they don't score. You can't hide them inside a combined squad, unfortunately, but you can get Skyfire on the missile launchers.

• Armoured Fist Cyclops Demolition Squad: Slow and squishy. Don't bother.

• Imperial Navy Air Support: Standard Thunderbolt, Lightning, and Avenger. They can all be kitted out to take down flyers or infantry fairly effectively, plus they come with Deep Strike to get into just the right fire arc.

Apocalypse Units

BANEBLADES!! Also Weismann.

Tactics

Orders

Like in regular IG regiments, your officers can issue orders on their units, but only for tanks. They works on 4+ which is not great, but with 24" range which IS awesome. Mind you that artillery tanks do not count as tanks at taking orders, so you must go Krieg for order-boosted artillery.

• Concentrated Fire: Force opponent to reroll cover saves, almost doubling average kill count of your low-AP big blast tanks. It's your main order, and if you want to play competitively you may just skip other two and don't read them at all.
• Erratic Maneuvers: Force opponent to reroll to hit rolls in melee against tank. With to hit moving tank 3+ even for Fire Warriors it's not a good choice, especially against melta-bomb or haywire grenade equipped squads, as they need only few hits to wreck your tank.
• Full speed ahead!: Extra D3 of flat out move. Not like you want to flat out something other then Chimeras and Hellhound variants, and Chimeras can not take orders, while Hellhounds being fast can flat out 12" which is almost always more than enough.

Allies

With as many Leman Russ's as your have, killing stuff should not be a big problem. But for each tank squadron you take your not taking a troop choice that can score, conversely if you take armored fists for scoring, your not taking tanks to kill stuff. In a sense, having troop tanks hamstrings you in a way standard guard doesn't as you have to chose between firepower and scoring ablity.

Ahh, but this is where allies can help you.

Armored Battle group ally like the Imperial Guard so they can team up with everyone, and Battle Brother with Imperial Guard, (not sure how they ally with Kreig and Elysian, they are all considered as normal Imperial Guard and as such have same allies options and are also Battle Brothers with all of the other Guard variants). With this you can use the two allied troop choices to give you more scoring power with out losing any heavy tanks and while two squads of Space marines might sound nice you really want to ally with guard. One Infantry platoon can give you five infantry squads, heavy weapon teams, Special weapon teams, and a conscript blob all scoring. Stick them all in Chimeras for fluff if you want.

On the other hand, the Armored battle group shines as a ally to another army. As stated they ally like guard, so any army in the game (except nids) that takes them as allies can take from a minimum of 2, (HQ and one troop) up to a max of 11 heavy vehicles counting the artillery from heavy support, commissar tank form elite, and taking air support or Hellhounds/Salamanders (for even more tanks) for fast attack. This howewer sucks a lot of points from your main detachment and only useful in large point games (where you can take double FOC anyway).

Remember who your battle brothers with so you can use you Tank orders and leadership ten bubble on allies.