Leaders Review

It's extremely rare that I play, let alone review, a game with a basic and advanced/expert mode and don't treat the base mode as a tutorial for the real game in the advanced mode. And we all know you skip tutorials as much as humanly possible, unless you are doing a review and feel obligated to check it out. Leaders even goes so far as to identify expert as the ultimate mode in CAPSLOCK BOLD ORANGE, so why am I convinced that the first mode is the only version I'm interested in playing again?

Whichever mode you play, Leaders is a two-player abstract of drafting from a roster of 16 unique pieces with the goal of either putting two of your pieces in a position to capture your opponent's leader or completely surrounding it. Turns in the base game consist of activating as many of your pieces as you want (moving them to an adjacent space or using their special ability) followed by drafting one of the three pieces on offer to your backline, up to the limit of 5. The second player gets to pick twice to make up for the loss of initiative in both phases, which generally feels like a pretty balanced compensation. Some pieces have obvious synergies with or shut down others, meaning on top of actually playing the game on the board, you're also balancing building your strategy against countering your opponent’s with your picks. It's snappy and easy enough to play, and something I can table with friends who aren't up to Gruntz, Caesar, or Hive, even if I may prefer those three. There's bad beat moments where the lynchpin piece against you shows after you pick and there's nothing you can do about it, but I'm not gonna get too salty about that in a game that lasts 10-15 minutes. Expert mode seems to remedy that gap of player agency by opening up the whole roster and introducing ban phases. 

If you're thinking that sounds like somebody turned the pregame of a MOBA or hero-shooter into a board game, that's because that's exactly what it is. The simplicity of the game on the board removes the in-game factors like team chemistry and player skill with a given character, so success or failure hinges on who got through the better team comp. It's by no means a bad game, I've got friends who play those genres who enjoy team building strategy who this mode is for. I just generally want something different from my two-player abstracts that the base game more closely mirrors, and the constraint of having to work with the limited offering is more interesting to me than playing a League of Legends lobby. 

All that to say, if I were judging Leaders just on its gameplay, it'd be in trouble. But damn, if this isn't an amazing production. The character standees slot into wooden holders instead of plastic clasps. Their cards are textured, spot glossed, and foiled. The box even has a little drawer for the standees! More awesome storage like this, less space-filling nonsense inserts, please. Leaders has become one of my favorite examples of an okay game being elevated by what feels like a deluxe production that doesn't make you shill out over 50 dollars.