Strainborming, Deathwing?

Now, one of the byproducts of having played marines (and flirted with Deathwing, for a time) is that I've got a lot of Terminators.

Not only that, but the problem is that Terminators aren't really worth a lot in terms of resale value. The whole Black Reach boxed set has seen to that rather well, and people have bitted out Termiantors for very little.

As such, I'm wondering about doing something with them. Now, I like the idea of Chaos, and I could even fall for the codex (somewhat), there's still the issue of running an army.

I'm also hankering a bit for some conversion fun, and until that blankety-blanking job finally calls back and gives me hours, I'm kind of out of money.

So, a thought's emerged, in part from this article from FTW and from seeing a 'First Company' army from the previous RTT.

Of course, brainstorming up Deathwing and working over the lists also means dealing with the art of BUILDING a Deathwing list. Nothing here comes in small blocks. You're stuck with taking Belial to 'unlock' Deathwing squads as troops, and there aren't a ton of options to hand to the Terminators.

Looking at the Deathwing Squad
The average squad comes in at 215 points for 5 fearless terminators; storm bolter and powerfists down the line except for sarge, who got a power weapon (for some reason or another).

Options
Any model can trade their loadout for a pair of lightning claws, or a thunder hammer and storm shield. This is free.

Squad may take one assault cannon or cyclone missile launcher. This is the 'old' cyclone which costs 20 points to the cannon's 30, but only fires a single krak missile. There's also the heavy flamer at 5 points, but we are kind of a short squad, and unless we're taking landraiders we are walking or risking the deep-strike.

Anyone may take a Chainfist for +5 points.

Additionally, one squad can be designated the 'command' squad, and take an Apothecary (one unit w/in certain range can ignore a failed armor save, with some restrictions) and a Standard (that grants +1 attack to everyone).

Squad loadouts
To be honest, I think the special weapon of choice here is the assault cannon. If I could take the updated codex: Space Marines cyclone, I'd do that in a heartbeat to get the range and versatility. As it stands? Assault cannon's as good as it gets. That puts the squad at 245, and everyone's getting themselves a chainfist, just to put it at an even 250 and let them handle the odd AV14 rear thing that comes along.

It also gives me three distinct 'groups' per squad with wound allocation: Sarge, Special Weapon, SB/Powerfist x2, and SB/Chainfist.

Belial (or whatever his name will be)
Belial's a no-brainer; 130 points for a WS5, BS5, I5 3-wound character in terminator armor. I can pick a storm bolter and master-crafted power weapon, a pair of lightning claws, or a thunder hammer/storm shield for him.

I'm leaning towards the lightning claws or bolter/power weapon. The bolter/MC power weapon lets him always contribute, but then again it's just a BS5 storm bolter. A couple more shots, maybe an additional wound. Lightning claws mean 4 attacks base that re-roll wounds. Right now, my old counts-as belial is packing twin lightning claws, which is nasty enough.

The Rest Of the Army
Now, I've got a draft list, but I want to keep all my guys on foot in termiantor armor. The simple answer is that if anyone's wearing just regular old power armor, they're probably going to get shot to death.

The second note is that I'm pretty much doing this as a 'fun' army; it's all terminators but there's a glaring problem with the list: ...we're kinda short on anti-tank. Terminators can punch out tanks without much of a problem, but they're relying on the rend against anything more durable than AV11.

Now, the guy at the tourney brought triple Vindicators, as those help with hords, and S10 ordnance tends to do a number on armor. (Even my happy little Wave Serpents cringe at that...).

Otherwise, there's always the MM/HF speeder, but I'm kind of 'eh' on those since I got rid of all mine, and they're not exactly durable.

Land Raider DW is a totally different build; in part if I'm going to buy Land Raiders again I'm going to do Daemonhunters in LR, but also that's pretty much committing to 15 guys + Belial. NOT exactly a high model count, and if someone can KO Land Raiders, then I pretty much lose.

Draft List, 1850
Belial 130
Twin Lightning Claws

DW Terminator Squad 250
Assault Cannon, Chainfist

DW Terminator Squad 250
Assault Cannon, Chainfist

DW Terminator Squad 250
Assault Cannon, Chainfist

DW Terminator Squad 250
Assault Cannon, Chainfist

DW Terminator Squad 280
Assault Cannon, Chainfist, Apothecary

Vindicator 130
w/ Dozer Blade

Vindicator 130
w/ Dozer Blade

Vindicator 130
w/ Dozer Blade

Total: 1800

Right now, that's 50 points free. I could dump some of that into upgrades, or try to free up some more and slap it into a character or Dreadnought. Dreads are 125 minimum in the 'dex, which could get me a walking multi-melta. I could free up about the same for a Librarian, but to be honest I'd be looking at a Dreadnought for the cost so I can get something like, oh, a multi-melta in there.

There's also the temptation to drop an assault cannon for a cyclone missile launcher, just to designate a squad as the 'babysitter' and give me a few points back. Of course, I'm not sure what I'll do with the extra 10 points back.

EDIT: I'm like as not to just slap Extra Armor on all the Vindicators and call it a day. If I go with a Cyclone, it's probably Storm Bolters on the Vindies all around, for what it's worth.

It occurs that I COULD drop a DW squad for, say, a pair of dreads, but then I'd be cutting into my Troops and the number of scoring units. More importantly, I'd also be cutting any potential Deathwing Assault to two squads instead of 3. Deathwing is half, rounded up, and 1/2 of 5, rounded up, is 3. 1/2 of 4 is 2.

Fluff-wise, and modding
I'm really tempted to finally give in to my Thousand-Sons fandom and do these guys up with one eye each, and do them in red, probably with white piping.