Leaders – A Finely-Tuned Team

Leaders is a game for two players, designed by Hugo Frénoy and published by Studio H (an imprint of Hachette Games). Every character on the board has a unique power, which can make the game feel somewhat chess-like. But each player gets a limited number of characters to use, keeping Leaders approachable with older children (the box says ages 10+).

Gameplay

Leaders starts quickly: Each player gets a distinct Leader standee (and matching card), which they place in the starting space on their side of the board, with the black side facing themselves and the white side facing their opponent. Then lay out three face-up Champion cards to the side. You’re ready to go!

Each turn, the current player may move or take a special action (or pass) with each of their characters. Then, if they have fewer than five characters (including their Leader), they choose another character to add to their team.

Move

Moving is simple: move a character to an adjacent empty space, in any direction.

Special Abilities

More than half the characters have action abilities that may optionally be used instead of a normal move. You’ll see a red lightning bolt on their cards. These action abilities tend to be more powerful, but can’t be used in every situation

The other Champions have passive abilities that affect what they (or other characters) can do, while still moving normally on their turn. The sole exception is the Nemesis. This character cannot move, except when the opponent’s Leader moves. Then the Nemesis immediately moves two spaces, as their player directs.

Choosing Champions

After the current player has taken an action (or passed) with each of their Champions and Leader, they may choose a new Champion to add to their team; but only if their team currently has fewer than five characters (including the Leader). The second player adds two Champions after their first turn to balance the disadvantage of going second.

Choose a Champion card from the three that are face up. Then take the corresponding standee and place it somewhere in your own starting row with the black side facing you (more on this in a minute). Flip another card face up to refill the options of Champions to draft. Then your turn ends.

How to Win

The goal of Leaders is to capture or pin your opponent’s Leader.

Capturing happens as soon as two of your characters are “touching” (adjacent to) the Leader.

Even if you can’t capture, you might still be able to pin the Leader down. If a Leader is completely surrounded by walls and characters, their player immediately loses.

Expert Mode

If the standard draft market isn’t enough of a challenge, Leaders also provides a harder “Expert” mode. All Champions are available to recruit from the beginning of the game. But each player gets two chances to banish Champions and remove them from the game.

This mode is even more strategic, and best saved for players who have played against each other several times.

Impressions

My very first impression of Leaders?

“This game looks so cool.”

The characters (art by Naïade) look amazing and interesting. And the two-sided black/white standees immediately grabbed my attention. It wasn’t until I played the game that I realized the two colors had a purpose – since every character can potentially be drafted by either player, you need an easy way to tell which standees are yours. Other games do this with rings or tokens or multiple sets of pieces, but the solution in Leaders is elegant and effective: face the black side towards yourself, and the white side toward your opponent.

And the box! I love the way the box organizes the different elements – cards and board on top, standees in a pull-out drawer. We usually pull out the drawer and sit it next to the play area, pulling out characters as needed.

It makes for quick clean-up too.

A Clash of Champions

Leaders has 16 unique Champions, each with their own twist, so the game feels overwhelming at first. There is so much to learn, and so many ways that the special abilities can interact with each other.

But a player is never offered too many choices at once. Only three Champions are available to draft after any turn. And even a complete game will only use half the Champions in the box.

This is a game that rewards exploration without substantially penalizing new players.

Even with their special powers, the Champions still move in predictable ways, and give you at least a turn or two of warning before they can close in to block your Leader.

Most of our plays of Leaders have been well under 15 minutes. Even though they’re short, games don’t feel truncated – except for the time I unthinkingly left myself open to an opposing Champion’s power after my second turn.

And yet, the more we played, the more tactical the game has felt. The strategy for different combinations of Champions have revealed themselves over repeated plays, hooking me a little bit more each time.

Leaders fits into the same niche as chess – a tight duel where nothing is hidden except your opponent’s plans. But like another of our favorites, Onitama, the choices you make each turn are actually pretty limited. This is a game that rewards exploration without substantially penalizing new players. The balance of a huge number of choices over the course of a game, but a limited number at any given time is a wonderful, rare find!

Get your own copy of Leaders at your friendly local game store, directly from Hachette, or on Amazon.
Not convinced yet? Try it for free on Board Game Arena!

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Leaders from Hachette Boardgames for this review.

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