What is the secret of this kingdom, where peace has reigned for thousands of years? Every spring, aspiring rulers recruit four allies and face off in unusual duels. There are no armies and no bloodshed: the first person to capture their rival wins. Your time has come. Tactical thinking, daring moves, and careful strategy will separate the true Leaders from the rest.
The goal is to create a team of unique Champions in order to defeat the opposing Leader. To win, you must either position two of your champions next to your opponent’s Leader to capture them, or skillfully maneuver so the opponent’s Leader is surrounded, leaving them with no adjacent empty spaces.
To set up the game, place the hexagonal board on the table between the two players. Each player takes one of the Leaders and places it on the starting space nearest to them; you also take the card for your leader and place it in front of you. Your pieces will always have the black side facing you, which means you will always see the white side of your opponent. The Champion cards are shuffled, and three cards are dealt out to form a market. If you like, you can place the matching Champion standee next to the card.
Turns are quite simple. First, there is an Action Phase, followed by a Recruitment phase. This recruitment phase happens for the first four turns only. In the action phase, the player must do something with each of their Champions. This can be done in any order, and the rules suggest turning the champion’s card sideways after you perform an action to remind yourself. A figure can either move to an adjacent empty space or take their action ability as shown on their card.
In the recruitment phase, you take one of the three Champions in the market and place it on any starting space on your side of the board. You then add the card to the area in front of you; you can have a maximum of five cards in the game. On the first turn only, the second player gets to choose two Champions. This is a way to balance out the advantage of going first.
The game ends if you can capture your opponent’s Leader. This is achieved by having two of your own pieces be adjacent to their leader. The game can also end if a Leader is fully surrounded by pieces from either side. In that case, that Leader loses the game.
Leaders is a quick game that plays out differently each time due to the different team compositions. Each Champion brings a varied special ability to the game, and a lot of the fun is figuring out how to make strategic and powerful combos from the Champions you have access to during your Recruitment phases. I have definitely gotten into the habit of making sure that I pick at least one or two Champions that allow me to move pieces or move themselves in interesting ways. I just like having that flexibility in movement.
As you only get to see three cards at a time, you really have to figure out your gameplan each turn. Once you have your army of five cards, it becomes a battle to the end, trying to outwit your opponent. Though at first I mostly concentrated on my own team, I have found it useful to monitor what my opponent is trying to do. There have been a few times when it was actually worthwhile to play defensively and choose a Champion to prevent my opponent from developing a deadly combination.
There is definitely an ebb and flow to the game as the players alternate their turns. The game is quite strategic because there is no hidden information. You can see what possible special abilities your opponent has at his disposal, but he can also see all of yours. There really aren’t any sneak attacks in Leaders, just well-planned-out strategies.
The board is not overly large, and this keeps all of the pieces within striking distance of each other. Coupled with the fact that most pieces are going to move to an adjacent space each turn, the game forces itself to the endgame rapidly. This is definitely not a game that will outstay its welcome. The game doesn’t even let you try to bunker in because you can automatically lose if you are completely surrounded.
Leaders is a short two-player duel that asks the players to adapt to the different subset of special actions in each game. Games definitely don’t take long, and it has become the sort of game that gets played best 2-out-of-3 when it hits the table. We like seeing how the different combinations of character abilities play out with each other.
