While there are differences bewteen broths and stocks, they serve mainly the same puropse - to bring a pot to life. Three types of each can represent the majority of your repertoire:

• Meat based, consisting of beef, seafoods and fowl
• Vegetable based, from mushrooms to lemongrass
• Herb and spice based - not really "spice" only, but a limited base of a simple grassy vegetable or a pepper product for a nice base to build your flavor profile on top of. These are the broths that would be found in a noodle soup, tortilla soup or a kimchi base of all types. The depth is in the herbal influences and not layers of fibrous vegetables or meat.