Goonhammer

Editorial note: Riot Games and publisher UVS provided us the starter decks and box of booster cards used in this review. Specifically, this review set consisted of the Vex and Vi starter decks, a vault box, and a box of sealed boosters from Riftbound: Unleashed, which is the third set released after the game debuted at the end of 2025 with Riftbound Origins. Thanks once again to Riot and UVS for providing these for our review.

Welcome to Competitive Innovations, our weekly feature for a number of game lines across the tabletop wargame space. Each week our army list and tactics experts canvass the top tournaments for their game of specialty, looking at the week’s top match-ups and how they played out on the tabletop to let you know what’s hot, what’s not, and what might be coming next as the competitive meta evolves year-round.

“Embergard echoes once more to the sound of steel and screams. Warbands roam the crumbling streets, watching every shadow for threats. Amongst the smoky darkness flickers a hellish orange glare – the glow of the Emberstone, Embergard’s true wealth. The Pulse of this arcane resource also illuminates fortifications and resources that could easily be seized by a canny commander.

Welcome to the Century of the Vampire, an ongoing weekly feature where Goonhammer managing editor Jonathan Bernhardt watches some piece of vampire media, probably a movie but maybe eventually television will get a spot in here too, and talks about it at some length in the context of both its own value as a piece of art and as a representation of the weird undead guys that dominate western pop culture who aren’t (usually) zombies.

In The Lore Explainer, we take a deep look at the lore behind our favorite games, movies, and books, and talk about the story behind them and sum up what you need to know and how you can find out more. In the previous entry in this series, we hit the very basics of StarCraft, looking both at the game itself as well as the basic lore of its three main races: The Terrans, the Zerg, and the Protoss.

It’s the rest of the Imperium’s turn for some Datasheets and the corresponding hot takes, as today Warhammer Community have published the rules for new Epic Heroes for Sisters and the Imperial Agents. Let’s take a look! Intranzia Fraye TwoHorse: This week’s earlier reveals have built a lot of hype for what Intranzia might bring to the table. Game-warping out-of-phase shenanigans like Yarrick? Sweet movement tricks and real output like Wazdakka Gutsmek?

When Games Workshop announced Eye of Terror: Reign of Iron – War for the Cadian Gate alongside Warsmith Kravek Morne, I was immediately reminded of Warsmith Barban Falk of the Iron Warriors and the war for Hydra Cordatus from Graham McNeill’s seminal 2002 Black Library novel Storm of Iron. One of the earliest Black Library novels, Storm of Iron was the first novel where the forces of Chaos defeated the Imperium.

Welcome back to Comp Crusade, the column wherein we update you all about our process of creating our competitive organized play pack for Trench Crusade! Last time we talked about our most recent update to the pack and what we had our eyes on for changes, and since that post we went to Adepticon and ran our event! With those rules no less! Let’s take a look at how it went.

Howdy Mechwarriors and welcome to what is… kind of a tournament report? Peri, Connor, Lynn, our friend Tentacle and myself went on out to Kentucky to participate in Brawl in the Bluegrass and it was an astounding time! A day of good games, fun opponents, some familiar faces and great competition awaited us! Great thanks to all who took part in setting it up and everyone who said hello while we were there! Now, as I’m sure as you can tell from the title this is not my tournament report.

Welcome back everyone to Mayday, Miss Marcy! Sadly April has been a month of trials and tribulations for your gal Marcy, but now that I am finally no longer sick (nor is anyone in my household), I can get back to what I love doing the most: Answering your questions! (Okay, that’s probably a lie, but it is certainly in the top 5).