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Hello everyone I wanted to compile a list of the army books and their authors and was wondering if anyone had already done so.

The books I own or remember are the only ones I have to go from so


Bretonnia: Anthony Reynolds
Vampire Counts: Phil Kelly
Tomb Kings: Robin Cruddace
The Empire: Robin Cruddace
Warriors of Chaos: Robin Cruddace
Wood Elves: Matt Ward
High Elves: Mat Ward
Dark Elves: Mat Ward
Daemons of Chaos: Mat Ward
Dwarfs: Jeremy Vetock
Orcs and Goblins: Jeremy Vetock
Lizardmen: Jermy Vetock
Skaven: Jeremy Vetock
Ogre Kingdoms: Jeremy Vetock and Jervis Johnson
Beastmen: No single author listed, 9 for Game Development
Triumph and Treachery: Jervis Johnson and Andy Clark
Storm of Magic: ?

Cruddace also did Warriors of Chaos.

Matt Ward did Dark Elves and Daemons of Chaos.

Updated, I think beyond this it would be good to scale the army books internal and external balance to discover the best writer.

Beastmen - No single author listed, 9 for Game Development
Dwarfs - Jeremy Vetock
Storm of Magic - No credits I saw
Wood Elves - Anthony Reynolds & Matt Ward

Now the question to be asked is which books have good internal balance, because internal balance I feel is a better indicator of a good armybook writer than balance with the other armies.

the Skaven army book is a master piece. Vetock will get my vote every time.

 Purifier wrote:
the Skaven army book is a master piece. Vetock will get my vote every time.

Well, it's a "masterpiece" of FAQ requirements in order to make any kind of sense of it...

Experiment 626 wrote:

 Purifier wrote:
the Skaven army book is a master piece. Vetock will get my vote every time.

Well, it's a "masterpiece" of FAQ requirements in order to make any kind of sense of it...

A FAQ that was written right after 8th came out and hasn't been changed since.
It's a complex army, that's a part of its beauty. But a complex army with fantastic internal balance.

I was under the impression Phil Kelly wrote Beastmen...

 Purifier wrote:

Experiment 626 wrote:

 Purifier wrote:
the Skaven army book is a master piece. Vetock will get my vote every time.

Well, it's a "masterpiece" of FAQ requirements in order to make any kind of sense of it...

A FAQ that was written right after 8th came out and hasn't been changed since.
It's a complex army, that's a part of its beauty. But a complex army with fantastic internal balance.

Their FAQ was already getting rather monstrous in comparison to everyone else's before 8th dropped, partly due to the book really being a 7.5 ed book.
It's not as horrible as say either of the DoC books, (both 7th & 8th versions are a joke), or say the old 6th ed High & Dark Elf books were, but it's pretty clear that Skaven are Vetock's first real solo project due to the poor wording and all the little fixes the book needs.
I agree though that it's miles ahead of the also joke'tastic 6th ed book that was basically all about spamming Warp Lightning, Ratling Guns & Jezzails though! (and then shooting them into combat willy-nilly!)



@Nathan2004: Andy Hore had done most of the work on the Beastmen book prior to leaving GW. Kelly was thrown into the project mid-stride to finish it off.
Hence why there's so many issues with them, as they're not only the product of two different authors, but are also being hamstrung by trying to make their rules mesh across two very different sets of core game rules.

Mat Wards books while generally stronger than the others stack up well against one another (besides World Dragon VS Daemons) however I wouldnt say they have the best internal balance.

 timofeo wrote:
Mat Wards books while generally stronger than the others stack up well against one another (besides World Dragon VS Daemons) however I wouldnt say they have the best internal balance.

As bad as BotWD is, Alarielle is even worse for Daemon players to deal with simply due to her synergies & that her special banner screams 'Light Coven'...



The only book he really hasn't screwed up massively on is the current Dark Elves, and even then, Warlocks stand out as instantly derpy-good. (but still nowhere near as dominating as an Alarielle Light Coven HE list can be)

6th Wood Elves were the epitome of cheese at the time they came out.
7th O&G's were easily the weakest army book GW had ever produced... because Ward isn't enthused about greenskins.
7th DoC were the catalyst that broke and entire edition of the game!
8th DoC are equally as big of a joke as their last book, only for different reasons.
8th HE's are among the top tier currently, especially Light Coven gunlines.
8th DE's are reasonably balanced, but Warlocks stand out like a sore thumb.

So overall 4 of his 6 books have been quite powerful to outright game-ruining, while 1 has been nearly unplayable and the other is simply a lesson in absolute frustration for both players!

Experiment 626 wrote:

 timofeo wrote:
Mat Wards books while generally stronger than the others stack up well against one another (besides World Dragon VS Daemons) however I wouldnt say they have the best internal balance.

As bad as BotWD is, Alarielle is even worse for Daemon players to deal with simply due to her synergies & that her special banner screams 'Light Coven'...



The only book he really hasn't screwed up massively on is the current Dark Elves, and even then, Warlocks stand out as instantly derpy-good. (but still nowhere near as dominating as an Alarielle Light Coven HE list can be)

6th Wood Elves were the epitome of cheese at the time they came out.
7th O&G's were easily the weakest army book GW had ever produced... because Ward isn't enthused about greenskins.
7th DoC were the catalyst that broke and entire edition of the game!
8th DoC are equally as big of a joke as their last book, only for different reasons.
8th HE's are among the top tier currently, especially Light Coven gunlines.
8th DE's are reasonably balanced, but Warlocks stand out like a sore thumb.

So overall 4 of his 6 books have been quite powerful to outright game-ruining, while 1 has been nearly unplayable and the other is simply a lesson in absolute frustration for both players!

True, but the only weak book he made was O&G though I wasnt trying to claim him as good author but it would seem there is no obvious winner when it comes to balance at least out of the 3 current majority authors Vetock, Ward and Cruddace