What is the "best" army book in AoS? (IE the one which should be the baseline)

[Neomaxim]

I have, in recent months, been all consumed with AoS.  I am a former competitive players of games going back to being part of the original Magic Pro-Tour, but have always tempered my competitive drive with fondness for fluff, rpg-light skirmish gaming, etc.  In recent months my wife and I have introduced her parents to AoS, and with that I have been building them fun, approachable armies, and thus also playing just as many casual matches as serious ones, which has only grown my fondness for the game in general.

As a result, I have all but been living in battletomes which has made me seriously consider what I feel the best written book is, gameplay-wise.

My personal conclusion?  I feel like the Gloomspire Gitz is an absolute high water-mark.  It is filled with wildly varied, but viable lists for all different skill-level of player.  It rewards high execution players, but also has valid models for "push 'em up the table" play.  Several units have fun, unique, ecclectic abilities, and among spells, artifacts, etc... very few are outright bad, or immediately feel like awful choices.

In essence it is a broad, but fairly deep pool of options with healthy internal balance.

This of course does NOT mean it is the strongest competitive army book, but my intent with this discussion is to ask what book you think SHOULD ideally represent the game, and thus should be the internal barometer for all GW designers to strive for.

What is your "golden standard" book, and how would you see some the extremes of competitive play look had they been created in that chosen book's image?

[Kirjava13]

6 hours ago, Neomaxim said:

In recent months my wife and I have introduced her parents to AoS

 

Edited November 6, 2019 by Kirjava13