Hi everyone! Been a while. I haven't been able to play as much as I'd like lately

I just got back from a my second 2v2 game using my new Black Legion army. I know it's very early yet in my chaos career, but I am feeling a bit frustrated with the BL at the moment.
In both games, I ran right around 1500 points of BL while my partner ran 1500 of Orks. The first game was against Squats and Eldar and the second game against all Eldar.
The basic issue I am having is that 1500 points pretty much gets me three activations. The units are huge and unwieldy. Today I had a retinue + bersekers with Rhinos, a retinue + noise marines with Rhinos, and an Armored Company of 6 Land Raiders. The Armored Company got broken and destroyed in short order. The retinues absorbed a lot of fire, but then got absolutely trounced in assault by the Eldar.
At the moment, that's about all I have painted (I will only play painted), but I am trying to figure out what I need next. It just feels like every unit available to BL is huge and expensive. I also feel like the cult troops attached to the retinues are a waste of points.
Any suggestions?