Leaders

Le matériel est très joli, l’édition avec boîte tiroir est originale et réussie (même si le tiroir de rangement des figurines montées est tout sauf pratique).

En revanche, je n’ai pas été emballé par mes parties :

• la phase de constitution des équipes est longue et fastidieuse pour les premières parties ;
• les parties en elles-mêmes sont rapides mais tant qu’on ne connaît pas bien les personnages, c’est plus chaotique que vraiment stratégique.

Clairement, il manque de la simplicité pour un plaisir de jeu immédiat (ça me fait penser à feu Dungeon Twister qui avait ses adeptes mais qui n’a jamais réussi à sortir de ce cercle fermé de fans, ce qui l’a tué).

Bref, du potentiel pour qui aura beaucoup de temps et donc l’envie d’approfondir, ce qui n’est pas du tout mon cas avec tous les jeux qui sortent.

Loved the idea, but the big draw (lots of different individual piece powers!) also made the board too hard for me to read. I bet a tenth play of this would be substantially richer than the first.

[1 play]

This is War Chest for kids, basically.

What makes War Chest clever is that the goal is to take objectives on the map, not kill the enemy leader. So it creates a beautiful tension between taking out enemy units and racing to the objective, also the opponent can't run away forever or they will lose very quickly. Being able to take down enemy units also means that the game becomes more tense as it progresses because as you get closer to victory you also have to do with less resources. Whereas in Leaders all units stay until the end and so there's no tension, the board never evolves, it just becomes a cat and mouse game that can drag on and on.

Leaders misses on everything that made War Chest a great game. For example in Leaders, on your turn, you can move or do the special ability of every single one of your characters. Again, this results in no tension and increases the cat and mouse feel of the game as you watch the enemy leader run away turn after turn.

I compare Leaders to War Chest so much because it was a clear inspiration. Some character powers are even identical to the ones in War Chest. I guess they tried to create a more modern, marketable product out of it, but it falls flat.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=leaders

Matériel de qualité et esthétique plaisante. Le jeu en soi n'est franchement pas intéressant. La règle du jeu tient en trois lignes. On cherche à bloquer le roi adverse. C'est un jeu d'escarmouche assez abstrait, sans suppression de figurines. Les choix sont parfois trop permissifs, d'autres fois ils sont trop évidents.

Ce jeu me laisse autant de marbre que Champ d'Honneur, qui est légèrement plus complexe, et donc potentiellement plus profond, mais au final tout aussi plat. Dans la même veine Onitama est plus intéressant, mais tout comme les échecs, c'est un jeu qui fait mal à la tête, ce qui n'est pas mon objectif quand je joue.

Au final, je réalise que les jeux d'escarmouche sont rarement intéressants. Bloodbowl est ce que j'ai essayé de mieux grâce à la gestion du ballon et de tacles, mais l'univers est clivant, les règles sont surchargées et le temps de jeu est beaucoup trop long.

Designer: Hugo Frénoy Playing time: 10-20 Min Weight: 2.00 / 5 Publisher: Studio H Player count: 2 (best with: 2)

[b]COMPLEXITY: Low COMPONENTS: Medium DOWNTIME: Low FUN: Medium INTERACTION: High PLAYING TIME: Low LUCK: Medium REPLAY VALUE: High SOLITAIRE: Very low THEMATIC: Low[/b]

[b]Comments:[/b] [thing=432716][/thing] is an abstract strategy game about grid movement, variable players powers and open draft. The ideia is that players will draft champions, which will help, with their bodies and abilities, to surround the enemy Leader, as the first person to either have 2 champions adjancent to the opponent's Leader, or have the Leader surrounded (by friendly and/or enemy pieces), will be the winner!

Play draft one champion per turn (on the first turn, the second player drafts two), until they have 4. Then is only a matter of using the basic movement (one space on any direction) or the special abilities of the champions in order to achieve the goal first. The champions have a lot of different effects, which greatly impact on the replay value, specially as some combinations can fit better than others. There is, of course, a lot of planning involved, as movement is often limited, and there is the need of preparing to make a proper approach and close the trap.

Still, as the pacing tends to be quite quick, the matchs normally don't take more than 20 minutes, even when moving 5 pieces for each side (the Leader plus 4 champions), as the effects are straightforward, being clear to understand and easy to apply. There are a few, with a lot of escapes and deny powers, which can lead to matches of 30-35 minutes, but these will be the exception. There is a lot of interaction, with champions being able to move others pieces, and, of course, there is the dance around the board, with both sides trying to suffocate the opposition Leader.

There is some presence of thematic flavor, in spite the gameplay being truly abstract, as the champions and their abilties do make sense in relation with their names: for instance, the Assassin needs only himself to "kill" the Leader, if he finishes next to it; the Royal Guard moves all the way to the Leader; the Archers can capture 2 spaces away, but does nothing adjacent; and so on. Is not enough to call the game thematic, yes, but is nice to see the logic behind the names and the powers.

Overall, [thing=432716][/thing] offered a good experience! To me it felt as a less brainy Onitama. Although I'm not much into competitive 2p games (even though I played a lot of them), I had no issue with [thing=432716][/thing]. Maybe is because of the lighter nature and the quick pace, as the draft really bring more and more options, but at only one at a time, so is easier to play this way, as you are more used with the prior champion before taking the next. There is luck in the mix, yes, as not all abilities mix in the same way, and is possible to have stronger combos - yet, using these well is another matter, as I, for sure, saw people (myself included) with the better characters make bad moves and lose anyway. Can definitely recommend a try!