If you love something, don’t let it go. That would be a very un-otaku thing to do. Instead, make a figure of it and put it on your shelf. Or, turn it into a tabletop game! As well as a new Gundam anime, the Gundam franchise has two big Gundam tabletop releases for us to look forward to in 2025. But brace for speculation: those two games might be compatible!
Reload Recap!
The Gundam TCG, announced last year, has seen an early release at the Bandai Card Games Fest 24-25 events in Utrecht and Orlando. Although those events happened in early December and this month, we’ll have to wait until July 11th of this year for the full release.
What will we get on release day? According to the Gundam GCG website (ha, clever!), four starter decks are on the… um… cards (sorry). Each faction has a color code and snappy name: Heroic Beginnings, Wings of Advance, Zeon’s Rush, and SEED Strike. Each starter has a recommended retail price of $11.99. Booster packs will be available from July 25th.
Gundam Assemble: Gundam Tabletop Wargaming Reimagined in 2025
“Avengers! Assemble!”
Ahem. Let me start again.
Gundam Assemble! That’s the name of the upcoming Gundam tabletop skirmish Gunpla wargame that news announced at the Bandai Card Games Fest 24-25 events.
Gundam Assemble lets you pit Gundam from across the franchise in skirmish battles, similar to games we’ve seen for BattleTech. The game is from Gunpla, the maker of Gundam plastic kits. I love the possibility of collecting the tiny 2-inch high Gunpla Gundams that will come with the game. Although we hope they’ll be a fraction of the price of regular Gundams, expect to open boxes with stat cards and anything else you’ll need to play, which may push prices up. You can find everything we know from the Gundam Assemble official website.
More Speculation Ahead!
We’ve seen shots of the game with regular six-sided and ten-sided dice. Since we know that Gundam TCG uses regular dice for tracking damage, and ten-sided dice work well with percentages (a 1 is 10 percent, 2 is 20 percent, and so on), I bet we’ll be using 10-sided dice for this particular Gundam tabletop game.
As for what we’ll be playing on, we’ve seen hex-grid maps and beautiful dioramas. My money’s on this being a map-only game since you don’t need measuring equipment, and the scale of the miniatures and maps could make the game easy to transport. That’ll be key if the wargame is supposed to be compatible with the card game.
Warhammer 40,000 taught me that resistance is futile and giving in is expensive, but I’d love a “small” wargame. I could carry it around with me! And who could say no to painting and collecting an army of Gundams! Furthermore, I foresee that Gundam Assemble will be the perfect solution for Gundam fans who don’t have the time, money, or space to collect larger Gunpla kits. Expect tinier Gundams from here on out.
Not Your TCG Investment Advice
I’ve bought many cardboard “investments” over the years. Although I’ve made no profit from them, I get to say things like, “Oh, I have one of those” and “Check out my 3,600 Llanowar Elves!”
So, I speak from experience when I say that, when it comes to TCGs, knowing what not to buy is half the battle. Although the Gundam TCG is likely to be hard to get worldwide, US buyers looking to pawn their investments to foreign markets might not have a market to sell to. It’s all a question of niches. Anime might be a big niche, but hobby gaming isn’t enormous unless you’re a big dog like Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer 40,000, the Pokémon TCG, or Magic: the Gathering (with a few exceptions). So, buy the Gundam TCG and Gundam Assemble if you love Gunpla, have treasured memories of epic space battles, and have a strong urge to play out your own mecha brawls.
Are you a tabletop gamer? Do you love screen-to-tabletop conversions? What Gundam do you most want for your tiny army? Let us know on social media or in the comments below.
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