Although Final Fantasy 12 is not actually a real time game, the action during battles can become very fast paced and difficult to control. The gambit system is like a basic computer programming code, and allows your characters to act without you directly inputting commands.
The gambit table has two sides, a condition side and an action side. Gambits are set up to act from the top of your gambit list down, meaning the character will try the first command on the list, and if the condition exists, will execute the action. If not, the character will move down to the next item on the list, and so on. This is the most crutial element to the Gambit system, as the order the Gambit's are placed on the list determines how frequently they are used.