Gundam Assemble: Hands-On With Mobile Suit Gundam’s Miniatures Tabletop Game

In a common scenario, players play through two phases or 20 rounds, trying to collect as many victory points as possible through various means. Scoring victory points ranges from rescuing/destroying garrisons to defeating a mech unit or holding objective points at the end of each phase. Each mech unit’s turn consists of a few possible options: advance, primary action, command abilities, and tactics cards. Advance is simply movement, and units can move up to three hexes in any direction. Although, when it comes to moving up a level of terrain, it costs two hexes of movement. There’s no terrain penalty going down a level, and units with a Hover ability ignore terrain penalties all together. Primary actions move the unit token down the timeline and includes options like attack, dash, energize, and rescue. Attacks on the unit cards have specific timeline costs. So if the RX-78-2’s Beam Saber attack has a timeline of three, the Gundam’s token moves down the timeline three rounds after using this specific attack. The other three primary actions normally cost two timeline rounds. Dash is an option to move two hexes further. In Char’s Zaku’s case, dashes can also deal damage with his Char Kick ability. Next is energize, which gives a unit an energy token so they can use certain abilities later in the game. And the last primary action is rescue, which can be used to rescue friendly garrison tokens on the battlefield for victory points. Some units benefit from rescuing garrisons like the RX-78-2, which has a command ability that increases its strength by one for every garrison rescued. Speaking of command abilities, that’s another option available during a mech unit’s turn that’s printed on the unit card. These command abilities usually have an energy cost and/or specific requirement, so plan accordingly. And finally there are tactics cards, which can be used up to once a turn before being discarded. Players start off with three tactics cards but eventually draw more after a phase ends. These are one-time use, ranging from repairing a mech unit to using an entirely new attack or countering an enemy unit. It seems like a lot for one turn, but at most times, players are mainly just advancing and using a primary action as options on the battlefield start to dwindle.

Of course, we have to talk about the combat in a Gundam miniatures game. Since games are typically 3v3 mech units, the battlefield is not too cluttered with miniatures, so entering combat gameplay is fairly quick in the opening turns as they each get deployed onto the battlefield and disperse towards various objectives. When enemy units are in range, the player’s unit can choose one of two attacks printed on their card or possibly an attack Tactics card. Each attack has a strength number and that signals how many 10-sided dice to use to calculate hits, criticals, and damage. Four and greater is a hit which equals one damage, and nines or tens are critical hits that activate the attack’s crit effect – whether it’s additional damage or a negative effect that hinders a unit’s capabilities. Unlike other games, Gundam Assemble doesn’t have defensive rolls like saving throws, so its damage calculation can be fairly easy. Instead, defenses can be used in the form of Shield tokens that a unit can pick up by chance or applied via a command ability or tactics card. Shield tokens are passive bonuses that nullify one hit per token equipped, and become exhausted or deactivated until the start of that mech unit’s turn. For example, the Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex’s Tail Blade attack attempts to deal six damage to Gundam Vidar, but the defending unit has two Shield tokens equipped. Instead of taking six damage, Gundam Vidar only takes four and the two Shield tokens are flipped over to signify being used. If another unit comes along to attack the Gundam Vidar before it reactivates its Shield tokens, the tokens will not defend two hits of damage. This, alongside some abilities or tactics cards that can nullify or lessen damage, keep combat rolls fairly quick and seamless. There’s no need to calculate a multitude of faction bonuses or if a unit is concealed or aiming like in other miniature wargames so far. The only other consideration when attacking is accuracy, which can be altered by elevation or special terrain like water. When a mech unit is eventually defeated, the winning player gains victory points as noted on the enemy unit’s card. Then the enemy unit’s token on the timeline is moved two spaces ahead when it can redeploy again after ‘repairs’ have been made. Any upgrades or energy accumulated stay with the defeated mech unit until it deploys again.

Gundam Assemble Starter Set 01

One other thing worth mentioning when it comes to any miniatures games is the price. After all, these detailed minis are a step above acrylic or cardboard standees or tokens, and it can get overwhelming when deciding which units to collect. The Gundam Assemble Starter Set 01 will run you about $35, which isn’t that much more than a HG gunpla kit, depending on the model. Considering a starter set of Warhammer 40K Kill Team can run you about $118 or a Star Wars Legion starter at about $99, Gundam Assemble is much easier on the wallet. I know my mom would’ve appreciated that when I first got into Warhammer 40K back in the day. With that said, there is a Deluxe Starter Set for Gundam Assemble at about $100, which contains double the minis of a regular starter. And if you’re feeling the itch, there are expansion packs featuring fan favorites that can run you $40.

Gundam Assemble’s gameplay is a nice blend of objective-based scoring while also having the option to just all-out attack enemy units for their VP rewards. It’s the balance of managing both strategies to your units’ best abilities that determines who is the better tactician. Between the easy builds that gunpla and miniature fans are familiar with to the fairly quick instances of combat and timeline management, the barrier to entry is slightly more beginner-friendly than other starter sets in the miniature wargame landscape. Not to mention, the price isn’t too bad for Gundam fans interested in a new tabletop experience, or those looking to venture into miniature games for the first time. For more Gundam, check out our hands-on impressions of the Gundam Card Game or our interview with the Director of Gundam RG XARX-Zero, Kenji Kamiyama.

Mike Mamon is a Syndication & Digital Specialist at IGN, devil fruit user, and world-renown JoJo poser. Let’s chat anime or TCGs on Bluesky @xpmnms.bsky.social