Building a Legal Squad

Squad building in Gundam Assemble is a two-line rule followed by a lot of judgement. The rule: do not exceed the unit count the scenario gives you, and do not take the same card twice. The judgement: which traits you need for your Tactics deck, and how much timeline you can afford.

The duplicate rule is about card numbers

You cannot include multiple copies of a unit with the same unit card number unless those units are Mass Produced. Card number, not mobile suit name. That distinction matters immediately in the launch pool, because two different cards both depict the RX-78-2:

| Card | Mobile suit | Pilot | HP | VP | Starting TL |

| ST01-U01 | RX-78-2 Gundam | Amuro Ray | 15 | 8 | 2 |

Different card numbers, different stats, legal in the same squad. The same is true of any future reprint with a new number. If you are checking legality, check the number in the corner, not the name on the card.

Mass Produced

Mass Produced is a trait, and it is the only thing that lifts the duplicate restriction. In the fifteen launch unit cards exactly one unit has it: the TOLRO-800 Torohachi, card EX01-U02.

| Trait | Card | HP | VP | TL |

At 8 hit points and 5 VP the Torohachi is the cheapest unit in the pool to lose, which is the point. A squad can field several of them as a screen, spend few activations, and let the deck carry the rest. Nothing else in the launch pool can be duplicated at all - so any list you see with two of the same Gundam is either illegal or using a card that is not in this set.

Unit count comes from the scenario

Starter Set 01 plays 3v3: three units a side. Deluxe Set 01 plays 5v5 with battleship-class units. Scenario objectives in the box state the count, and the rule is simply that you may not exceed it. There is no points value to balance against; the scenario count is the whole constraint.

That is unusual, and it is deliberate. Two three-unit squads are not equal in power, only equal in size. A list of three value-1 units and a list of three value-3 heavies are both legal at 3v3, and they play completely differently.

Traits and your deck

Your Tactics deck may include any card as long as at least one unit in your squad meets its requirement. Traits across the launch fifteen:

| Trait | Cards |

| Earth Federation | 7 (including both RX-78-2 cards, Guncannon, Guntank, Torohachi, Unicorn, Delta Plus) |

| Civilian | 2 (Torohachi, Unicorn) |

| Zeon | 1 (Char's Zaku II) |

| Gjallarhorn | 1 (Gundam Vidar) |

| Tekkadan | 1 (Barbatos Lupus Rex) |

| G Team | 1 (Wing Gundam Zero EW) |

| White Fang / OZ | 1 card (Epyon EW) |

| Londo Bell | 2 (Unicorn, Delta Plus) |

| Asticassia | 3 (Aerial, Pharact, Darilbalde) |

A mono-Earth-Federation squad has the widest card access and the most generic units. An Asticassia squad gets three cheap, fast bodies and very little else. Mixed lists buy deck flexibility at the cost of coherence.

Building for timeline, not damage

The single most useful habit in list building is adding up what your squad can do in the first four rounds. A value-3 unit with a 6-cost weapon acts once in that window. A value-1 unit with a 3-cost weapon acts twice.

That is why the fast cards are not simply "worse" versions of the heavies:

• Gundam Vidar (13 HP, 7 VP, TL 1) is the cheapest activation in the pool and still carries a real weapon line.
• Gundam Aerial (16 HP, 10 VP, TL 1) trades a little durability for acting early with 10 VP on the card - an expensive unit to lose.
• PA01 RX-78-2 (17 HP, 10 VP, TL 1) is the toughest value-1 card in the set and the reason the paint pack is more than a painting product.

Sample 3v3 shapes

Three legal starter-era squads, each built to a different idea:

| Shape | Units | Why |

| Tempo | Vidar (TL1), Aerial (TL1), Delta Plus (TL2) | Nine or more activations per Phase; wins objectives by being there first |

| Anchor | PA01 RX-78-2 (TL1), Barbatos (TL2), Guntank (TL2) | Two 17 HP bodies plus long-range fire |

None of these is a tier list - the game is young and scenario-dependent. They are three shapes the rules allow, which is the point worth internalising: the constraint is size and duplication, not points.

Checklist before you sit down

• Unit count at or under the scenario limit.
• Every card number unique, except Mass Produced.
• Every Tactics card in your deck matched by at least one unit's requirement.
• Nine Tactics cards, no duplicates unless the card allows it.
• Starting Timeline values noted, because they decide your first three activations.

Next: the tactics card page covers deck legality from the card side, and the unit card database has every stat in one table.