CBM would be my choice too. Especially the Pretenders but I would just play CBM full given a choice.
It helps Noobs and AIs more than Vets as it in general makes weak things better. This means that poorer choices in Pretender design or army builds are not punished so much as they are more viable (but still not equal to the better choices) as they would be in stock. Plus it adds to the variety as more summons, pretender choices, spells, magic items and troop types become viable. It's also becoming the default mod for games. A year or two ago the only commonly seen mod was Worthy Heroes and most games had that. Now it's CBM - so even for learning purposes playing with CBM is better. Many/most of the modern guides are CBM or at least have CBM bits to them too.
I don't mind playing with stock but it is in all ways worse than CBM.
I also like graphs on, 15 Hall of Fame, Standard or Difficult research and Renaming On. After all humerous renaming of Thugs and Mages is part of the fun
EDIT: My Captain and I don't seem to agree on anything so far
