So You Want to Play Gudnak

Five Minutes. That's All We Need.

Gudnak (pronounced “GUHD-nak” — Orcish for “war”) is a tactical card game played on a tiny 3×3 grid. Two players. Twenty cards each. One winner. Zero mercy.

Watch the Tutorial

3 minutes. No reading required.

The Gist

Here's What You Need to Know

Cards in Your Deck

One Hero. One Stronghold. The rest is up to you.

3×3

Grid Battlefield

Nine squares. Two Strongholds. Infinite bad decisions.

Actions Per Turn

Draw, Deploy, Move, Attack, Defend, or play Tactics.

Your Arsenal

Fighters & Tactics

Fighters hit the battlefield, move around, and punch things. Each one has Power — that's how hard they hit and how much they can take.

Tactics are one-shot effects. Play them, resolve them, done. They cost the number of actions shown on the card.

Heroes are the big guns — unique, powerful, and you only get one per deck. Use them wisely.

Their Stronghold

Back Row

Gates

Back Row

Gates

Back Row

Your Stronghold

Where You Play

The Battlefield

Nine squares. Your deck sits on your Stronghold behind the center square. The middle square of your back row? That's your Gates. If an enemy gets there, bad things happen.

Fighters deploy to your back row (the three squares closest to you), then move and fight their way across.

Each Turn

Three Phases. Two Actions. One Goal.

First turn of the game? You only get 1 action. After that, 2.

Phase 1

Start

Enemy on your Gates? You're Sieged — lose the top card of your deck. No enemy? Draw a card. (It's one or the other.)

Phase 2

Actions

Spend your 2 actions. Deploy fighters, move them around, attack enemies, play tactics. You must use your actions if you can.

Phase 3

End

All your fighters wake up (Fatigue removed). Pass the turn. Try not to look too smug about it.

The 7 Actions

Draw

Top card of your deck to your hand. No hand limit.

Deploy

Drop a Fighter onto your Back Row. Shared Trait? Stack it. It's now Fatigued.

Move

Slide a Fighter up, down, left, or right into an empty square. Fatigued.

Attack

Pick an adjacent enemy. Higher Power wins. Tied? Both die. Winner slides in.

Defend

Enemy on your Gates? Discard cards equal to its Power. Bye bye.

Use Ability

Trigger an Action ability on a card you control. Fighter? Fatigued.

Play Tactic

0–2

Play a Tactic from your hand. Costs what the card says. One-shot, then to the Graveyard.

Fatigued fighters can't act again until the End Phase. Plan accordingly.

The Endgame

How to Win (And How to Lose)

Get a fighter onto your opponent's Gates. Every time they start a turn Sieged, they lose a card off their deck. When the deck's gone and they get Sieged again — game over.

Protect your Gates. Burn through theirs. That's the whole game. Everything else is style.

Choose Your Side