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No (DA are useless) flames please, this is based on personal experience and has done pretty well.
Looking to see if anyone can think of improvements to the concept. I liked running the Deathwing infantry army in its last incarnation but the new edition is often harsh and firepower reductions made it suffer. I never deepstrike, the fact that it was all infantry gave me a boost in escalation and, (key to this army) it is small enough to be able to hide in terrain, move and fire and concentrate overwhelming firepower on small portions of my opponents force wilst minimising incoming fire. Close combat was to be avoided at all costs although eventually when it did happen that many power fists helped.
None of that was new or was my own invention, much of the tactical concept was taken from various forums. It worked very well though and i had good results against all types of armies (except the old eldar 14 star cannon army i came across a few times).

So new codex, less heavy weapons. I decided to try a variation of the Deathwing shooty infantry army to see how it would do; it did a lot better than i'd have thought. This was mostly due to adding a couple of dreads (more heavy weapons for less points). This made it a bit more vulnerable but with similar firepower.

Belial - Thunderhammer and shield (i find for my purposes he needs the 4+ inv in combat)

4 x Terminator squad - Assault cannon and all stormbolters @ 245 each

3 x Dreadnought - Heavy flamer and Assault Cannon @130 each

That comes to a very simple 1500 points. Interestingly it has more scoring units than my old army which was always a big issue.
7 Assault cannons and 3 heavy flamers are not super powerful but deploying well and concentrating on small aspects of my opponents force allows me to almost always have fire superiority. The whole army has a fairly small footprint too so its easy to hide them. Gun lines tend to spread out allowing me to focus fire. CC armies get shot up and when they get close i send the dreads and Belial forwards as speed bumps (when you don't expect them to last long they always surprise you, and the 3 flamers on the way in often hurt).
In my experience thus far its done fairly well against some of the more competitive builds. The army has little to fear from Nidzilla, rending and powerfists by the ton let me use his strength against him, and out of combat he lacks AP2. Nid horde tend to be scarier, though the dreads shine in that situation. Marine SAFH are usually problematic, but as i said previously, if i'm careful not to expose myself to incoming fire i can usually generate fire superiority (small footprint plus move and fire army is a wonderful combination). Eldar falcon spam has been problematic, nothing quick to block the doors means sooner or later i get assaulted by the harlies and there's not much i can doabout it. Maybe i've been lucky but if i grit my teeth and allow a couple of units to be overwhelmed this way i can usually finish them off in the next turn when they're in the open (squad size 5 means they usually lose the combat and die quick smart to the harlies).
So, any comments are welcome.I'm particularly interested in what people think about the pros and cons of dropping a dread to make the others venerable. This ofcourse allows different weapon fits. Also, how would the army fare against the new Orks? Which weapons to give Belial? Is max range 24 too much of a handicap in tournament play?
I've had a lot of fun with this force, its usually underestimated but in practice seems to become much more than the sum of its parts. I know DA is far from the most competitive army, but for the purists out there, here is a pure deathwing army that can hold its own. When you win (and i've not lost with it yet) you get much respect for doing so with the DA and it feels all yummy inside. I'm gonna get my arse kicked soon, what do you guys think will do it first?

Very interesting list.

I think the 24" range may really hurt you against shooty armies in general (especially eldar because they can just stay out of range)

The mass terminators is cool and the dreads are nice, but I just think you really should have better weapon options on the dreads (IE drop 1 make venerable and tl lascannons - You'll need this against necrons really badly!!)

The belial setup I really like,
he is cheap, he is tough enough to annoy people.
Do you find that the thunder hammer makes him die early because of the low initiative?

Eldar seems to be the bane of this list,
so many power weapons, so maneuavable, longer range heavy weapons.

Nice list,
need to try it before I can say that it will work,
I just think that if the opponent knows what your units do you will be overwhelmed or outshot. Termie's still are very expensive.

Cheers!!

cheers for the response.
As far as Belial goes, I find that with the powersword he has sofew attacks at such a low strength that striking in initiative order does not add much to his survivability. I'll be honest and say i've not really tried the LCs yet but i really like the shield, IC status protects him from firepower and his 4+ invulnerable in CC really does seem to make a difference. The hammer also makes him a legitimate threat to vehicles and characters sometimes avoid him because of his durability and instant kill potential. Thus far it seems to mix well with his role in the army as a speed bump.
Eldar are a pain, do you think 2 ven dreads with longer range will make that matchup an easier one than 3 cheap ones with donkey cannons?
Necrons on the other hand have never been much of an issue, their lack of ap2 weapons usually spells their doom, though i can't kill monoliths to save myself I usually win the atttrition battle comfortably.

I have a similar list still building. I think the ven dreads are better as fire support for your Termies as they advance.

AC + Missile launcher + Ven + Terrain is pretty good for DA.

I plan on giving Belial 2 LC. I only have 1 Init 5 guy, he's gonna take what he can do and do something, I hope.

I put Missiles on my Termies (and all LC but for 1 fist) but I haven't had a chance to test yet. I really don't like AC myself but others do well with it.