Gundam Assemble Tactics Cards: Complete Guide to Strategic Card Play

Gundam Assemble tactics cards form the strategic backbone of Bandai’s competitive tabletop miniatures game that launched in October 2026. While the 5 cm mobile suit miniatures handle physical positioning on the hex-gridded battlefield, Gundam Assemble tactics cards provide the crucial decision-making layer that separates skilled players from beginners. Every product release in the line includes its own set of tactics cards designed to work alongside unit cards, expanding the tactical toolkit available to players as the game continues to grow.

What Gundam Assemble Tactics Cards Do

Gundam Assemble tactics cards work in tandem with unit cards to define what each mobile suit can accomplish during a match. Unit cards list the core statistics for each miniature including timeline cost, effective range, and strength values, while tactics cards introduce additional strategic options that aren’t permanently printed on the units themselves. The separation between unit cards and tactics cards means players can adapt their approach mid-match rather than being locked into a single strategy from the first activation.

The timeline system that governs turn order in Gundam Assemble creates natural decision points where tactics cards become essential. Every unit card lists a starting position on the timeline track, and actions push units further down that track before they can activate again. Tactics cards give players ways to influence that sequence, respond to opponent moves, or create openings that wouldn’t exist through unit abilities alone.

Tactics Cards in Starter Set 01

Starter Set 01, the $35 entry point for the entire format, includes 18 tactics cards alongside its six mobile suit miniatures and six matching unit cards. The set is designed as a complete teaching tool for players with zero tabletop gaming experience, which means those 18 tactics cards are specifically chosen to demonstrate core strategic concepts without overwhelming new players with too many choices at once.

The starter box arrives with everything two people need to play a full three-on-three skirmish including a hex-gridded game map, 10-sided dice, game tokens, cardboard terrain pieces, a handbook, and a quick reference sheet. Those 18 tactics cards sit alongside two teaching scenarios that walk players through the rules step by step, giving beginners a chance to see how tactics cards integrate with unit abilities before they attempt to build a custom squad on their own.

The six mobile suits included in ST01 span multiple Gundam series: the RX-78-2 original Gundam, Char’s Zaku, Wing Gundam Zero EW, Gundam Mepphyon, Gundam Vidar, and Barbatos Lupus Rex. The tactics cards included in the box are selected to support that specific roster rather than representing the full range of options available across the entire Gundam Assemble line.

Expansion Pack Tactics Cards

Every expansion pack released for Gundam Assemble follows a consistent structure: three unpainted and unassembled miniatures, three matching unit cards, nine tactics cards, and a set of game tokens sized for those specific units. The packs don’t include boards, dice, or terrain since they’re designed to plug directly into a starter set a player already owns.

Expansion Pack 01, focused on Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn suits and priced at $40, includes nine tactics cards alongside the Unicorn Gundam, Delta Plus, and a third unit. Expansion Pack 02, built around Mobile Suit Gundam The Witch from Mercury, also ships with nine tactics cards supporting Gundam Aerial, Gundam Pharact, and Gundam Darilbalde. That pack explicitly introduces new token-based strategic options that weren’t present in the base Starter Set 01 rules, signaling that tactics cards are a primary way Bandai expands the mechanical complexity of the game with each release.

The modular design means a player who owns Starter Set 01 can immediately integrate Expansion Pack 01’s nine tactics cards into their existing pool, creating new combinations that weren’t possible with just the starter box alone. A Unicorn series unit from EX01 can sit next to a Witch from Mercury support unit from EX02 in the same custom squad, and the tactics cards from both packs become available to both players regardless of which specific miniatures are on the table.

Deluxe Set Tactics Card Contents

Deluxe Set 01, the $100 premium entry in the launch lineup, scales the format up to five-on-five battles and includes a full set of tactics cards proportional to its larger scope. The set contains 13 miniatures total, a full set of unit cards, a full set of tactics cards, game tokens, two scenario objective cards, two separate game maps, cardboard terrain, 10-sided dice, a handbook, and two quick reference sheets.

The deluxe set reuses the Witch from Mercury suits from Expansion Pack 02 but drops them into a scenario themed on the Battle of A Baoa Qu, a Universal Century engagement from an entirely different era. That cross-world scenario design means the tactics cards included in DX01 need to support both the Witch from Mercury units and whatever Universal Century suits appear alongside them in the five-on-five story scenario.

Bandai showcased Deluxe Set 01 at Gen Con 2026 as the format’s answer for players who’ve outgrown the starter’s teaching scenarios but aren’t ready to build a fully custom squad from scratch. The expanded tactics card pool in the deluxe box gives those intermediate players more strategic options than ST01 provides while still offering guided scenario play rather than demanding full deck construction knowledge immediately.

Tactics Cards Across Product Lines

Product	Price	Miniatures	Unit Cards	Tactics Cards	Release Window
Starter Set 01	$35	6	6	18	October 2026
Expansion Pack 01	$40	3	3	9	October 2026
Expansion Pack 02	$40	3	3	9	October-November 2026
Deluxe Set 01	$100	13	Full set	Full set	November 2026

Bandai has committed to a release cadence closer to a trading card game than a typical model line, with more than 30 products planned worldwide within the first year. Six products are scheduled across January, February, and March 2027 alone, including four more $40 expansion packs, a $170 Deluxe Set 03, and the format’s first $55 scenario pack. Every one of those releases will include its own tactics cards, meaning the strategic depth of Gundam Assemble will continue expanding monthly rather than reaching a fixed ceiling after the initial launch wave.

Strategic Deck Building With Tactics Cards

Beginner guides for Gundam Assemble distill squad construction down to a simple three-job framework: pick one unit that creates threat and forces an opponent to react, one unit that helps control formation and positioning, and one unit that provides flexible options to cover mistakes or support plays already in motion. Tactics cards support that framework by giving each of those three roles additional tools beyond what their unit cards provide on their own.

The format’s baseline of three units per side rather than the dozens common in larger miniature games means every single model in a Gundam Assemble squad carries real tactical weight. Losing one unit is a far bigger swing than losing one model out of 30 would be in a larger scale wargame. That smaller footprint makes tactics card selection more critical since players have fewer miniatures to execute their strategy and need every activation to count.

Because expansion packs are explicitly designed to plug straight into an existing card pool, a player building a custom squad can mix tactics cards from Starter Set 01, Expansion Pack 01, and Expansion Pack 02 in the same deck. A Unicorn series unit filling the threat role next to a Witch from Mercury support unit is exactly the kind of cross-series squad the whole system is built to encourage, and the tactics cards from both packs give that mixed roster more strategic flexibility than either pack would provide in isolation.

Tactics Cards and the Gundam Card Game Crossover

Gundam Assemble’s connection to Bandai’s separate Gundam card game predates the standalone tabletop game by more than a year. The very first Gundam Assemble miniatures shipped in 2025 inside card game starter decks, and those early bundles included token cards and resource cards alongside the miniatures themselves. Players could snap the mobile suit models together, paint them, and place them directly on the deck’s token cards during a match, letting a painted miniature physically stand in for what would otherwise be a flat cardboard counter.

Later card game products like the Premium Card Collection Gundam Assemble Set continued that crossover into the standalone era, sold through the card game’s own official storefront rather than the miniatures game’s retail channels. Bandai deliberately kept two separate purchase funnels running side by side so collectors chasing card game exclusives and collectors chasing tabletop miniatures both end up buying into the same connected universe of products.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many tactics cards come in Starter Set 01?
Starter Set 01 includes 18 tactics cards alongside six miniatures, six unit cards, dice, a game map, tokens, terrain, and rulebook materials.

Do expansion packs include new tactics cards?
Yes. Every expansion pack includes nine tactics cards alongside three miniatures and three unit cards, introducing new strategic options with each release.

Can I mix tactics cards from different products?
The modular design allows players to combine tactics cards from multiple products when building custom squads, supporting cross-series roster construction.

Are tactics cards the same as unit cards?
No. Unit cards list core statistics for each miniature like timeline cost, range, and strength, while tactics cards provide additional strategic options during gameplay.

How do tactics cards work with the timeline system?
Tactics cards give players ways to influence the timeline sequence, respond to opponent moves, or create tactical openings beyond what unit abilities provide on their own.