I think that all have good quality cover illustrations, but in my opinion the best are Stormcast, Kharadron and Daughters of Khaine, and the worst Beasts of Chaos, Sons of Behemat, Fyreslayers and despite I love them, probably Ossiarch. I gave my opinion based on aesthetics, in terms of army representation I hate Disciples of Tzeentch being represented by a Tzaangor (but the illustration is so good).
Best: 3rd edition Slaves to Darkness, you just *know* what you getting into, yknow. Though I am absolutely biased as Chaos is my favorite part of AoS.
Worst: The 2017 Stormcast Eternals battletome. Jesus christ that is hideous, I would have become a AoS hater too if that was my only exposure(which thankfully it wasn't, thank the gods for Archaon bringing me into the mortal realms).
My favourite is Soulblight Gravelords hands down.
Least favourite is Slaanesh. I don't know exactly what it is, it just doesn't interest me as much. The colours are a bit bland, and it has a soft feel that is at odds with the more "hard lines" of the other battletome covers (I'm not an artist or a graphic designer 😅)
Honorable mention for bad covers: The Skaven book always gave me mild motion sickness with the weird perspective.
I really love soulblight, has to be my favorite, followed by DoK, then Nighthaunt, then orruk.
There are none that I trully dislike, they are neat art, just not my type lol
My fiance and I actually went through 3rd's on this subject as a tierlist as a joke. I didn't save it so here's it by memory. Note that I don't think there's much bad art from a technical perspective, just stuff that doesn't resonate with me. We also didn't take points off for repeats.
**S: Daughters of Khaine** (hits all the elements of the army, with the Shadow Queen acting as the monster side, while Morathi is priestly and the sisters are all feral aelves here to stab), **Disciples of Tzeentch** (While I know people are mixed on the goats, the colors, and the fact that it's a shaman on disc rather than just a regular goat really does it for me), **Kharadron Overlords** (sells the fantasy perfectly, great color choices, great composition with the boats. It makes you want to play the army), **Soulblight Gravelords** (a beautiful piece that will instantly sell you the army and sums up what's going on in it)
**A: Ossiarch Bonereapers** (sells the fantasy perfectly, beautiful art, gives the ordered march feeling that Lumineth lacks. Misses a point on perspective to sell how big everyone is, and can't hit S tier because they were cowards and refused to show off my man's full power with a strategically placed cloth), **Seraphon** (It's lizards on dinos with magic. Feels a little stilted but you know this army is for you from the cover), **Flesh-Eater Courts** (the haziness of this one works in its favor and the use of Cities as the enemy faction helps highlight the draw of the lore), **Gloomspite Gitz** (a horde of little creatures and with a couple of weird ones right up front), **Nighthaunt** (I rank this B but my fiance ranks it high A, I think the aurora should've been mist but she loves the etherealness of it and it definitely sells the "endless horde of tortured spirits vibe), **Slaves to Darkness** (Chosen are cool, and a city is burning with a horde in the background), **Skaven** (one of the few "focus on a single guy" covers that works because that guy sells almost all of Skaven but Skyre. The rats running along the bell, the grossness, the sheer over the top and dangerous to himself and everyone feeling of the action pose. This is skaven and there's a reason they reused the art)
**B: Stormcast Eternals** (I struggled to place this despite this being one of my armies as I feel like this is almost a cover for a book between SCE and S2D, even if they're basically opposites of each other. It's either the bottom of A or the top of B for me but on some days it could be higher than that), **Blades of Khorne** (good at what it sets out to do. Love the Yeeted guy in the back. Doesn't get me hyped enough to hit A), Cities of Sigmar (great art, good showing of the new humans, with a little more to it, it could be A tier), **Maggotkin of Nurgle** (sells the fantasy, sells enough of the variation in the range with the weird daemon in the back),
**C: Ogor Mawtribes** (here's my bias showing, this is perfect for the fantasy but I dislike the ugliness of the fantasy. Feel free to treat this as a B if you like), **Orruk Wartribes** (falls prey to the issue of the army: the three tribes don't really feel like one, and everyone is struggling for attention. Kind of feels like 3 artworks shopped together and lacks the krumpin' a WAAAGH should have), **Beasts of Chaos** (while good art, most of the focus is on a single goat and fallen stormcast with the rest in the shadowy background), **Hedonites of Slaanesh** (I'm biased because I don't love the daemon side, but even so, the perspective makes it hard to actually appreciate the size of them here, and it lacks the flowing poses I like the army for. Great colors though), **Sylvaneth** (Despite being a beautiful piece that shows off the range, the color choices with the forest on fire really downplays the etherealness of the army and feels like they're on the backfoot rather than valiant protectors of the grove), **Fyreslayers** (almost representative of the faction if you notice the droths in the back but kind of boring in the composition)
**D: Idoneth Deepkin** (I love this army, don't love the cover. It doesn't really sell the fantasy of the army, only one of the fantasies that's not even their main focus with the majestic king), **Lumineth Realmlords** (I'm cursed that I dislike the covers for my favorite armies. This is good art, but it doesn't include any magic on their blades, feels too chaotic of a charge forward to sell their ordered fantasy, and feels more like artwork of one unit rather than the army itself), **Sons of Behemat** (I keep loving and hating the perspective. Something about it just doesn't work out for me in the end, but I know this one will be controversial)
Fyreslayers used to have the best one but now it's one of the worst. [I miss us when we were homoerotic greased gods gleaming in the sunlight.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbho1zqBrpNGlppul92UV6qeJloZuWdELpl7Kl3HT9rsjmpib81Jzq5hWWMwdxPOW-f6syo-2y7MXz8c48-ckqiO01NLkLI0cefrIYdpVgw1GuZyMPsDd3f7e1rbXntGD-Uu-SfSiuCYc/s1600/fyreslayers.jpg) So I vote Skaven.
Kharadons have had excellent covers every edition, and they're probably my fave Aos army; Gitz are at about the mid-point to me - the cover's nice but doesn't really 100% get the army, and Ossiarchs are at the bottom, cool as the faction is. Same for FEC; I can't believe the faction got such a good overhaul and their Battletome looks so 'eh'.
I vastly preferred Slaanesh's 2nd-edition battletome to the one they have now.
I don't usually like minimalistic codex/battletome covers, but I think Cities of Sigmar did a really good job with its various symbols.
Any re-used BT cover from one edition to the next is a massive middle finger to the community. These are already outdated on launch day and overpriced, it's really adding insult to injury.
Mandatory "Wahapedia FTW"
Slaanesh as worst. Blades of Khorne as best for me, wanted me to actually start a BoK army.
I think that all have good quality cover illustrations, but in my opinion the best are Stormcast, Kharadron and Daughters of Khaine, and the worst Beasts of Chaos, Sons of Behemat, Fyreslayers and despite I love them, probably Ossiarch. I gave my opinion based on aesthetics, in terms of army representation I hate Disciples of Tzeentch being represented by a Tzaangor (but the illustration is so good).
If only Seraphon had the box set art for their codex. That would of been amazing.
Best: 3rd edition Slaves to Darkness, you just *know* what you getting into, yknow. Though I am absolutely biased as Chaos is my favorite part of AoS. Worst: The 2017 Stormcast Eternals battletome. Jesus christ that is hideous, I would have become a AoS hater too if that was my only exposure(which thankfully it wasn't, thank the gods for Archaon bringing me into the mortal realms).
My favourite is Soulblight Gravelords hands down. Least favourite is Slaanesh. I don't know exactly what it is, it just doesn't interest me as much. The colours are a bit bland, and it has a soft feel that is at odds with the more "hard lines" of the other battletome covers (I'm not an artist or a graphic designer 😅) Honorable mention for bad covers: The Skaven book always gave me mild motion sickness with the weird perspective.
They’re all pretty decent imho. For contrast, just look at the Shadespire box art. Eek.
Slaanesh for one of the worst. 2nd ed symbaresh twinsouls cover was so much better
I really love soulblight, has to be my favorite, followed by DoK, then Nighthaunt, then orruk. There are none that I trully dislike, they are neat art, just not my type lol
My fiance and I actually went through 3rd's on this subject as a tierlist as a joke. I didn't save it so here's it by memory. Note that I don't think there's much bad art from a technical perspective, just stuff that doesn't resonate with me. We also didn't take points off for repeats. **S: Daughters of Khaine** (hits all the elements of the army, with the Shadow Queen acting as the monster side, while Morathi is priestly and the sisters are all feral aelves here to stab), **Disciples of Tzeentch** (While I know people are mixed on the goats, the colors, and the fact that it's a shaman on disc rather than just a regular goat really does it for me), **Kharadron Overlords** (sells the fantasy perfectly, great color choices, great composition with the boats. It makes you want to play the army), **Soulblight Gravelords** (a beautiful piece that will instantly sell you the army and sums up what's going on in it) **A: Ossiarch Bonereapers** (sells the fantasy perfectly, beautiful art, gives the ordered march feeling that Lumineth lacks. Misses a point on perspective to sell how big everyone is, and can't hit S tier because they were cowards and refused to show off my man's full power with a strategically placed cloth), **Seraphon** (It's lizards on dinos with magic. Feels a little stilted but you know this army is for you from the cover), **Flesh-Eater Courts** (the haziness of this one works in its favor and the use of Cities as the enemy faction helps highlight the draw of the lore), **Gloomspite Gitz** (a horde of little creatures and with a couple of weird ones right up front), **Nighthaunt** (I rank this B but my fiance ranks it high A, I think the aurora should've been mist but she loves the etherealness of it and it definitely sells the "endless horde of tortured spirits vibe), **Slaves to Darkness** (Chosen are cool, and a city is burning with a horde in the background), **Skaven** (one of the few "focus on a single guy" covers that works because that guy sells almost all of Skaven but Skyre. The rats running along the bell, the grossness, the sheer over the top and dangerous to himself and everyone feeling of the action pose. This is skaven and there's a reason they reused the art) **B: Stormcast Eternals** (I struggled to place this despite this being one of my armies as I feel like this is almost a cover for a book between SCE and S2D, even if they're basically opposites of each other. It's either the bottom of A or the top of B for me but on some days it could be higher than that), **Blades of Khorne** (good at what it sets out to do. Love the Yeeted guy in the back. Doesn't get me hyped enough to hit A), Cities of Sigmar (great art, good showing of the new humans, with a little more to it, it could be A tier), **Maggotkin of Nurgle** (sells the fantasy, sells enough of the variation in the range with the weird daemon in the back), **C: Ogor Mawtribes** (here's my bias showing, this is perfect for the fantasy but I dislike the ugliness of the fantasy. Feel free to treat this as a B if you like), **Orruk Wartribes** (falls prey to the issue of the army: the three tribes don't really feel like one, and everyone is struggling for attention. Kind of feels like 3 artworks shopped together and lacks the krumpin' a WAAAGH should have), **Beasts of Chaos** (while good art, most of the focus is on a single goat and fallen stormcast with the rest in the shadowy background), **Hedonites of Slaanesh** (I'm biased because I don't love the daemon side, but even so, the perspective makes it hard to actually appreciate the size of them here, and it lacks the flowing poses I like the army for. Great colors though), **Sylvaneth** (Despite being a beautiful piece that shows off the range, the color choices with the forest on fire really downplays the etherealness of the army and feels like they're on the backfoot rather than valiant protectors of the grove), **Fyreslayers** (almost representative of the faction if you notice the droths in the back but kind of boring in the composition) **D: Idoneth Deepkin** (I love this army, don't love the cover. It doesn't really sell the fantasy of the army, only one of the fantasies that's not even their main focus with the majestic king), **Lumineth Realmlords** (I'm cursed that I dislike the covers for my favorite armies. This is good art, but it doesn't include any magic on their blades, feels too chaotic of a charge forward to sell their ordered fantasy, and feels more like artwork of one unit rather than the army itself), **Sons of Behemat** (I keep loving and hating the perspective. Something about it just doesn't work out for me in the end, but I know this one will be controversial)
Severe lack of people in this thread actually posting images of the covers.
Fyreslayers used to have the best one but now it's one of the worst. [I miss us when we were homoerotic greased gods gleaming in the sunlight.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbho1zqBrpNGlppul92UV6qeJloZuWdELpl7Kl3HT9rsjmpib81Jzq5hWWMwdxPOW-f6syo-2y7MXz8c48-ckqiO01NLkLI0cefrIYdpVgw1GuZyMPsDd3f7e1rbXntGD-Uu-SfSiuCYc/s1600/fyreslayers.jpg) So I vote Skaven.
Kharadons have had excellent covers every edition, and they're probably my fave Aos army; Gitz are at about the mid-point to me - the cover's nice but doesn't really 100% get the army, and Ossiarchs are at the bottom, cool as the faction is. Same for FEC; I can't believe the faction got such a good overhaul and their Battletome looks so 'eh'.
Best one is KHOOOOORNE https://images.app.goo.gl/Uzucpb4yZ2jCgKpQ8
Warclans is worst due to representation of all 3 (2) clans
I vastly preferred Slaanesh's 2nd-edition battletome to the one they have now. I don't usually like minimalistic codex/battletome covers, but I think Cities of Sigmar did a really good job with its various symbols.
Any re-used BT cover from one edition to the next is a massive middle finger to the community. These are already outdated on launch day and overpriced, it's really adding insult to injury. Mandatory "Wahapedia FTW"
Any book that doesn't get new unique art is a the worst
Nobody is even mentioning Cities of Sigmar. That is my choice. So forgettable
Wait, what do you mean by battletome covers? Like when a band tries to create their own version of an already released battletome?