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I'm not looking to be super competitive, but am coming back to 40k after a long hiatus. Looking for suggestions on things i should try going forward, maybe weapon load out tweaks etc. Posting my last army list which for the most part i was quite happy with.

Emperor's Children Legion 1750 points

HQ
Daemon Prince with 2 malefic talons and warp bolter - 159
Terminator Sorcerer with Force Stave and Combi-bolter - 130

Troops
10x Cultists, 8 autoguns, 1 shotgun on champ, 1 Heavy stubber - 44
10x Cultists, 9 auto pistol and brutal assault weapon, 1 Heavy Flamer - 49
10x Noise Marines, 8 with sonic blaster (including champ), 2 Blastmaster - 222
10x Noise Marines, 8 with sonic blaster (including champ), 2 Blastmaster - 222

Elite
5x Terminators with 2 lightning claws - 215
Helbrute, Fist with combi-bolter, power scourge - 157
Helbrute, Fist with combi-bolter, power scourge - 157

Heavy
Defiler, Havoc launcher, Reaper Autocannon - 166

Dedicated Transport
Chaos Rhino, extra combi-bolter - 74

Last 155 points set aside as reinforcements, at end of second movement phase rolled two dice with my daemon prince, got a 9, brought in a 20 strong daemonette unit with daemonic icon.

If you are playing Emperor's Children, and taking Helbrutes, you should consider taking Sonic Dreads. The Forgeworld FAQ gives Emporer's Children the option to take sonic weaponry on their Helbrutes, Including replacing the multi melta with 2 blast masters, and the option for a carapace mounted Doom Siren. 2 Blast Masters is just about the best gun arm you can fit on a Helbrute, since the various fire modes work very well with the Fire Frenzy Strategem. And on a melee dread you can throw a 10 point Doom Siren on top (Thanks Chapter Approved!) which is cheaper and better than a Heavy Flamer.

Depending on how your conversion skills are, I would definitely recommend slapping some Sonic Weapons on those dreads.

I am not a big fan of the Terminator Sorcerer. I usually prefer a Jump Pack. You can still deep strike where you need thanks to the jump pack, but you now have a much improved movement stat which helps you redeploy quickly, gives you the option of starting on the board and still being able to keep up with everything, and cast buffs from turn one. While still being fast enough to potentially support your deep strikers.

I would take a Scourge instead of the Havoc Launcher on the Defiler. He needs the Defiler Scourge to have a reliable close combat phase, and the Defiler is a much better melee piece than a ranged piece. Chaos has far better options for ranged attackers than the Defiler, like Predators, Hellforged Scorpius, even Forge Fiends or Renegade Armigers. Where the Defiler shines however is being big, scary, and dangerous in melee. Those Defiler Claws are s16 and wound a Knight on a 2+. Get them accross the map with Warp Time, and drive their assault home with Daemonforged for 1 CP.

I personally think you would be better served with 3 Obliterators than 5 Terminators. But I'm not going to get into that.

Generally I would advise against Summoning. Right now, summoning is only exceptional where you have a huge toolbox of daemons and can bring in exactly what you need where you need it. For Emperor's Children I would hesitate to include a plan to summon unless I had a full selection of Slaaneshi daemons and could bring in whatever I wanted. Even still, you are going to be better off including an actual detachment of Daemons if you want to include any. Having a detachment of Daemons unlocks their loci, as well as their stratagems, which can have some great interplay with your Chaos units. In any event, you won't be able to support your Daemonic summons with special abilities like Warp Surge unless you have a Slaanesh Daemon Detachment. So if you are interested in adding Daemons to your Emperor's Children, I would consider getting a small Detachment, like a Vanguard or something.

Thanks very much for the suggestions! They will help a ton.

The terminators were taken previously due to the fact that I had the models from third or fourth edition and have been trying to utilize them by dropping sorc with them for warp time. So far meh, so will be looking at other options. I will definitely look for the rules that allow sonic weaponry, do you know of a link at all? My standard strategy so far has been having a shooty doom ball with my defiler, noise marines, Lord and prescience. Using cultists to screen, and helbrutes to try and stomp around the edge of the board to get to good targets to melee. It's worked well so far but I've only had one opponent. As for the daemons, I don't know much about detachments and don't have a list of what they require, so didn't know I could use a detachment of daemons in my army. Thought that would make me not battle forged, so to try daemons I had to summon them.

Games Workshop has all the FAQs you need (including for Forge World) on their main community page.
https://www.warhammer-community.com/faqs/
Just get the Imperial Armour Chaos FAQ from that link. Sonic Dread is on the very top of page 3.

Also the FAQs on that page now clarify that you *cannot* use warp time on a squad that has arrived from reserves. So i hate to rain on that parade... In the link provided above that is in the Rulebook FAQ. Your plan to deep strike in a sorcerer and cast warp time on a melee unit also arriving from deep strike was considered too powerful by GW so they took it away in April.

So here is a basic primer on "Detachments". A battle forged army just means an army made up of one or more legal "Detachments". A detachment could be anything from a Battalion (at least 2 HQ + 3 Troops), to a Vanguard (at least 1 HQ + 3 Elites), to a Supreme Command (At least 3 HQs). Each of the detachments have restrictions and they are listed in the Rule Book.

Now, Chaos and Chaos Daemons are "Battle Brothers". Which means that you can take a detachment of Chaos Marines and a Detachment of Chaos Daemons in a battle forged army. For instance, an example Daemon Detachment would be a Herald of Slaanesh, a Keeper of Secrets, and 3x 10 Daemonettes. that is a Battalion Detachment. Etc. You would need the Daemon Codex to field this detachment, and you would get access to those special rules and stratagems. What you cannot do, is mix units within a detachment. For instance, you cannot have a Chaos Marines detachment that uses a Herald of Slaanesh as an HQ, but as long as they are in different Detachments you are good to go. Most events put a limit on the maximum number of detachments you can field (typically 3), but in theory a battle forged army can consist of as many legal detachments as you can fit together provided they are battle brothers. The Chaos Battle Brothers are; Chaos Space Marines, Thousand Sons, Death Guard, Chaos Daemons, Renegade Knights, and Renegades and Heretics (traitor guard).