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I found myself with a big pile of DV Hellbrutes and nothing to do with them. Really, who in their right mind is going to throw a bunch of them on the table and watch them get shot to death before they get anywhere. Similar situation with a Maulerfiend. It's a cool model, but it has never done anything useful for me on its own. Clearly the only option is to buy more crap, throw it all together, and laugh. 1 Warpsmith, another Fiend, and a box of Imperial Knight Renegade later, and I had this:

Forsworn knight detachment:
380:Renegade knight avenger gattling cannon, melta gun, reaper chainsword
375: Renegade knight Thermal cannon, melta gun, reaper chainsword

Daemon Engine Pack:
225:Warpsmith Aura of dark glory, burning brand, combat familiar, dimensional key, MoN, VoTLW
200: Forgefiend 2 hades auto cannons, extra ectoplasma cannon
135: Maulerfiend lasher tendrils

Mayhem Pack
110: Hellbrute powerfist, power scourge
115: Hellbrute powerfist, heavy flamer, MM
115: Hellbrute powerfist, heavy flamer, MM

Mayhem Pack
115: Hellbrute powerfist, heavy flamer, MM
115: Hellbrute powerfist, heavy flamer, MM
115: Hellbrute powerfist, heavy flamer, MM

In my mind, Hellbrutes falling from the sky and causing mayhem in random spots on the table is glorious. The Warpsmith lets the Fiends actually hit stuff and maybe he will kill something and have the falling Hellbrutes not scatter off the table. Knights are there to provide a third option for giant walking robots. Also, they are probably the only things that will do any real heavy lifting.

This is one of those lists that will probably either be a ton of fun or totally useless. Either way, should be fun.

A version of your idea, but without the Warpsmith tax, would be to replace him with sorcerers. Either as a formation or as HQ choices.

If you want to keep the Smith my recommendation would be to max Maulerfiends and put the Smith on a bike. That way you keep up the pressure on the opponent while your Hellbrutes rips apart his rear units.

Unfortunately, there's no option to put the Warpsmith on a bike or any other kind of thing (Disc, Jugg, etc.) that I am aware of.

Otherwise, he might not be such a tax and could actually keep up with things like Maulerfiends.

Per the FAQ I thought you couldn't give a character more than 1 relic? So warpsmith can't have dimension key and burning brand?

Another option, if you're using Forgeworld, could be to consider using the Purge as your primary detachment.

1-2 HQs, 2-6 Elites, 0-8 Troops, 0-4 Heavy Support, and 0-1 Fortifications.

You need to attach the 'smith to some sort of ablative wounds, or he will get picked off quick. My first choice would be a helcult, both to use up another helbrute from your vast stock of them, and to add a few meatshields to the board. Outside of that, I would suggest a auxiliary Chaos Spawn formation from Traitors' Hate: this will give your smith some nice sandbags, as well as a quick way to grab objectives at the end of the game.