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This list uses pretty much everything I currently own. I plan to expand the list in the future with some basilisks and hellhounds.

How bad is this list? Are there any obvious, easy improvements I can make?

Battalion 1:

HQ:
Company Commander Laspistol and Chainsword
Company Commander Laspistol and Chainsword
Knight Commander Pask with battlecannon, heavy bolter hull, and heavy bolter sponsons

Troops:
Guardsmen + Sergeant
Guardsmen + Mortar HWT + Sergeant
Guardsmen + Grenade Launcher + Sergeant

Elites:
Astropath
5 Ratlings

Heavy Support:
x2 Heavy Weapons Squad with 3 mortars
(6 total mortars here +1 from guardsmen above)

Dedicated Transport:
Chimera with Multilaser, Heavy Stubber, and Hunter Killer Missile

Battalion 2:

HQ:
x3 Tank Commander with Battlecannons

Troops:
x3 8 Guardsmen + Grenade Launcher + Sergeant

Heavy Support:
Leman Russ with punisher, hull heavy bolter, and sponson heavy bolters

Total: 1499 points (I'll prob proxy in a bolter on a company commander or sergeant if my opponent doesnt mind to fill that extra 1 point.)

I guess it can't be too bad if nobody has told me how trash it is xD

Well, Pask + 3x Tank Commanders + a Punisher isn't a bad way to go at all. That list should be fairly solid. It's biggest weakness is going to be close combat honestly, once an enemy gets close to you it's GG, you lose. For that reason, I think pretty much every Guard list should have a counter-charge element. I'd probably drop the Chimera, the Ratlings, and the Heavy Support Leman russ, to make room for some Bullgryns.... or maybe a Knight Gallant, to act as a counter-charge unit.

Most of the folks I've been playing against are also fairly shooty armies so I wasn't too concerned about counter-charge when building the list.

I definitely want to improve into more of a takes-all-comers list. Would it be better to take a separate catachan battalion for some melee or are bullgryns strictly superior?

Do people usually take bullgryns in smaller units or max them out?

Bullgryns are strictly superior, because they are so much more durable... like orders of magnitude more durable. They can also handle hardcore threats that Catchans cannot deal with, like Daemon Princes or Dreadnoughts.

They're often taken at max size, but at 1500 points a 5-6 man unit would probably be fine.

Against other ranged players they'd still be good, because they take a TON of shooting to remove, so if you just sprint them to the enemy lines they either draw a lot of fire, or reach the enemy and cause a massive headache. One of the biggest reasons they are so good is that they are one of the few units in the game that can get a 0+ save... so AP2 weapons still give them a 2+ armor save. Hell, they can get a (-1)+ save if they're in cover, so AP3 weapons are wasted on them too. They take a lot of firepower to bring down, or AP5 weapons.

Good to know!

I think my next purchases will be 1-2 Bullgryn boxes and maybe a few Basilisks.

Sounds like a plan! Also something to keep in mind... if you don't have a melee counter charge unit, even other shooting armies can abuse you in melee. I played a Tau player at a recent GT I went to... he used his Riptides to assault my Tank Commanders, to prevent them from firing. Riptides can fall back out of combat and still shoot, so he didn't lose any firepower by doing it, but my Tank Commanders never fired again except for overwatch :(

Oooh, I hadn't considered that. I'm pretty new to 40k, so much to learn still!

I'll keep that in mind for the next time I play with my Tau

Yea, you always gotta keep in mind that units can't shoot when they're in melee I won a game vs a Shooty AdMech list at a tournament recently by charging a pair of Dunecrawlers with a Hellhound, and charging a large squad of Kataphron Servitors with another Hellhound. That shut down most of his shooting, so I was able to easily win the game. Considering he had first turn, and blew up 2 Tank Commanders turn 1, I was pretty sure I had lost the game, but getting off those charges really turned it around.

Thinking about it, this is a pretty solid reason to leave in the Chimera actually, you can always suicide it up the field to charge an enemy shooting unit, to shut it down. The enemy can either waste shots on it instead of killing a Tank Commander, or they can ignore it and have it tie up a shooting unit for a turn or two.

Always gotta try to shut down enemy shooting by getting into melee, and you should always be mindful of that strategy being used against you!

Looks pretty ok. Your quite short on troops and might have trouble capturing objectives after a few turns and a smart player will start tagging the tanks. I think another 20-40 bare bones infantry as a first wave. You have enough Russ tanks to make an emperors fist detachment I think. Could add the hammer of sunderance and some nice strategies. Also I'm a big fan of getting one enginseer, they can heal d3 per turn and with jury rigging it's a good way to push a tank up a damage bracket.