GAMBIT PROTOCOL Join the Muster

Ninth Lantern Games presents

Draw the hand. Hold the line.

GAMBIT PROTOCOL is a turn-based tactics deckbuilder for 1–4 commanders. Every unit is a card. Every card is a wager. The board keeps the receipts.

Join the Muster Read the Rules

Your opening hand

Brief a unit — hover or focus a card in the hand.

240unit cards
64tiles of felt
45 minper match
1–4commanders

Field report — turn 3

The board keeps the receipts.

Sixty-four tiles. No dice. The Ashline Duelist has spent two of three movement points; the dashed line is a promise she still has to keep. Walk into the Falconer's overwatch and the strike resolves before your boots settle.

  • Move — Ashline Duelist

    e2 to c6, cost 2 of 3. She ends adjacent to the ridge stair with one point banked for the retreat.

  • Overwatch — Ridge Falconer

    Holds g6. The east files are covered to range 3; the first unit to cross eats the arrow.

  • Hold — Lantern Warden

    Anchors c4 and refuses to blink. Adjacent allies ignore Flank while the lantern burns.

Initiative order

Round 3
  1. ActingAshline DuelistINIT 14
  2. ActingRidge FalconerINIT 12
  3. ActingLantern WardenINIT 9
  4. ActingIron PriorINIT 7
  5. ActingThe CartographerINIT 5

Ashline Duelist is acting, round 3.

Glossary of the Protocol

Six words that win tables.

The rulebook runs ninety-one sections. These are the six your opponents will quote back at you, verbatim, at the worst possible moment.

Overwatch

§ 3.1

A unit on Overwatch strikes the first enemy that enters its line of sight, before that enemy finishes moving. One trigger per round, no exceptions, no appeals.

Rally

§ 3.4

Return one Exhausted card from your discard rank to your hand. A unit may Rally instead of attacking — mercy now, muscle later.

Flank

§ 2.7

An attack from two opposite tiles counts both units’ ATK. Vanguards are immune while adjacent to an ally, which is why Vanguards have friends.

Entrench

§ 2.9

Spend a full turn without moving to gain +2 DEF until you next move. Entrenched units cannot be pushed, pulled, or politely asked to leave.

Gambit

§ 5.2

Once per match, play any card at zero cost — then reveal your hand to every commander at the table. The Protocol takes its name from this rule. So do most of its funerals.

Exhaust

§ 1.8

A card that acts twice in one round is Exhausted: turn it face-down. Exhausted units defend at half, rounded down, like everyone at four in the morning.

Choose your banner

Four banners. One table.

Each faction ships as a 60-card starting deck with its own initiative curve. None of them are balanced the same way. All of them are balanced.

The Gilt Court

“Coin first, steel second.”

Order of the Low Bell

“They toll before they charge.”

The Mirewatch

“The marsh remembers every march.”

The Sundered Keep

“A broken wall still casts a shadow.”

The muster roll is open

Request the Field Manual.

The complete rules, the errata ledger, and a print-and-play skirmish deck — free. Delivered by courier pigeon or email, whichever reaches your keep first.

Dispatched. Watch your gate for the courier.