Leaders
Leaders is a one-on-one chess game in which we try to capture the enemy leader. To achieve this, we must flank him with two of our warriors or ensure that he is completely surrounded by enemy or friendly heroes.
Simple castling
Each player’s turn is divided into two phases:
In the first phase, we can activate all team members. We can move our warrior one space as usual or use their special ability.
In the next phase, we can recruit a new hero to our team. Remember that there is a limit of 4 helpers.
Various stands
The most important feature of this game, and also its biggest advantage, is the variety of characters we can recruit to our ranks. Each hero has a special power that can passively affect other warriors. There are also abilities that give us unique activation. All of this greatly influences the seemingly simple actions we can take.
By recruiting an ent we can prevent the enemy from moving our team members. When we want to increase our mobility, we can consider hiring a jumping frog or a teleporting succubus.
The trick is to select team members whose abilities mesh well with each other and help us achieve our goal. A well-assembled team can work wonders on the board.
In the basic game mode, we choose heroes from the 3 available on the market, so it’s a bit random who we get. However, it’s still great that we can build the asymmetry of our team ourselves.
Gameplay time
Another big advantage of Leaders is that the game is very fast. The 15 minutes stated on the box was accurate in most cases. We literally sit down, set up the game, finish, and we can pack up. Although in most cases we played a quick rematch.
Quality and components
Something that surprised me was the way the game is stored. The board and cards go in the top part of the box. The bottom part has a pull-out drawer where we keep the fighter standees. It is also designed so that it can store the fighters without removing their bases. The stands themselves have nice illustrations reminiscent of fairy tale characters, and their thick bases make them difficult to knock over on the board. Tested on a cat.
As for the board itself, it looks rather poor. The empty white spaces make it look more like a prototype than a full-fledged game.
Summary
Leaders turned out to be a fast-paced chess duel, which “slightly” reminds me of Warchest. This is because both games involve strategically positioning our warriors in order to outmaneuver your rivals. Although Leaders is more of a lighter version, in which asymmetry is built during the duel by looking at what we need at the moment or what is available on the market.
However, in the long run, this simplicity of action meant that my excitement about the game stopped at the level of “Okay, I can play this.” It was fun to play, but there are duel games that do it better and give me more options to choose from. Leaders is a mediocre game that provides fast gameplay, but it lacks something to keep me interested a little longer.
Final verdict: Did you want a simpler Warchest with illustrations straight out of Disney fairy tales without a license?
Pros
- Fast and simple gameplay
- Building your own team with asymmetrical powers
- Large selection of characters
- Fairy tale illustrations
- Great container for standees
Cons
- Gameplay is OK
- After a while, the excitement wears off
- Not enough options for my taste
[Game provided by Galakta]
