LEADERS: The Combined Strategy Game

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LEADERS: The Combined Strategy Game
Game data
author Manfred Lamplmair , Gertrude Kurzmann
and Reinhard Kern
graphic n / A
publishing company German, English: rudy games GmbH
Publishing year 2013, 2018
Art strategic board game
Teammates 2 to 6
Duration 90 to 240 minutes
Age from 12 years

LEADERS: The Combined Strategy Game is an app-supported strategic board game that was first published by Austrian rudy games GmbH in 2013 and a new edition in 2018 .

Theme and equipment

The game Leaders is based on similar games with an area control mechanism, especially the classic risk , and supplements the game mechanisms known from this game with additional elements. The players play pre-selected scenarios, the rules of which are specified by the app belonging to the game. The winner is the player who first fulfills a victory condition specified by the selected game scenario.

In addition to the instructions, the game material consists of:

  • a large game plan in the form of a world map,
  • over 300 plastic miniatures (troops),
  • six nations cards,
  • six base camps,
  • 18 cubes,
  • 15 scenario markers,
  • 30 wooden markers, and
  • a quick start guide

There is also a mobile app that is used on a tablet ( Android or iOS ) and can not be played without the Leaders .

Style of play

Preparations

Before the first game, the app for the tablet must be downloaded and installed. Then the user creates an account and can start the game from there.

The playing field is laid out in the middle of the table and the players each choose a nation. In the app, the number of players is selected and the app adjusts the resources, costs for units, bonuses through research, etc. according to the number of players. Then a game scenario is selected. The players now enter their player information one after the other, such as player name and player color. Depending on the chosen scenario, they also choose one of the three power blocks (capitalist, neutral or communist). Finally, they choose a nation that differs in their respective power block, their special ability and their home area. The basic version of the game contains the following six nations:

The players now each receive a player board, which is placed in front of them and which shows the base camp with the drop zone, the scales for badges of honor and military research and space for the nation map. He places the nation card of his chosen nation on the space provided on his player board and receives all the pawns of his chosen player color (30 infantry, 10 tank and 10 aviator units), which are placed as a supply to the right of the player board. He also receives all wooden markers in his chosen player color and places them to the left of the player board. Depending on the scenario selected, the app now shows how the starting areas are to be occupied, with the options “freely selectable”, “home area” or “fixed area”. To compensate for the starting advantage of the first player, the following players receive infantry units from their supply according to their position and place them on their base camp on the right side of the player board.

Before the game starts, the Leaders app displays the winning options for the selected scenario as well as any special rules that may apply in this game.

Style of play

Actions per turn
  • Phase 0: Enter production points
  • Phase 1: withdraw units
  • Phase 2: National Events
  • Phase 3: order units
  • Phase 4: fight
  • Phase 5: Headquarters

Leaders is a turn-based game in which all players take their turns in one of the player order given by the LEADERS app. The app shows the active player at the top right the current phase of the game he is in, and after this all other players take their turn, starting with the input of his production points. A game round ends when each player has made one turn. All steps and actions in the game are accompanied by the app and between the individual phases the active player must indicate to the app that the last phase has been completed and the next phase can start.

At the beginning of his round, the active player always first enters his current production point balance openly into the app. This is the sum of the production points of all territories occupied by him and the continent bonuses. The current production score of each player is marked at the bottom of the board with one of his wooden markers. The active player then takes all surplus units from the game board to his base camp on the player board, so that only one unit remains in each of his areas. He may decide which unit type to leave in the respective area. No units may be deducted from sea fields. Then he moves all units from the drop zone to the base camp on his player board.

After the player has withdrawn his units and confirmed this, public and secret national events are displayed to him through the app. If the player has received alliance offers from other players, he can make a decision on each of these. Public events can include troop supplies, sabotage, boycott, new technologies in the military or "fame and honor", secret events include information about new technologies in technology and business, status information about boycotts, espionage activities and sabotage, diplomacy and missionary Results and the like.

In the next phase, units are ordered, which are then used for the following combat phase. The active player places any number of units from the base camp in his own areas or in the areas of his alliance partners with the exception of the sea fields, from which he would like to be active in the subsequent phase. The number of units placed together with the units already available must not be higher than the production points of the respective area. This can be increased through research (military 2) or through special properties of individual nations. The active player then moves the placed units to adjacent areas that he wants to attack. He has to leave a unit in the starting area to keep it occupied. Empty areas can be taken without a fight. After the player has carried out all troop movements, each defender may move units from his base camp into his own attacked areas or those belonging to alliance partners. The number of units of the defender of an area must not be higher than the production points of the respective area.

When all defenders have distributed their units, there will be fights in all areas with troops from different players with the exception of the sea fields, in which the active player can decide for himself whether to attack. The attacker determines the order of the battles and each battle continues until the attacker or defender has no more units in the area or one of the parties has retreated. The fights are fought in rounds and at the beginning of each case, the attacker and then the defender decide whether they want to retreat. In this case, the player in question loses half of his units involved in the fight and places the rest of the units back in the drop zone on his player table. If neither player withdraws, the battle is rolled. The number of dice used depends on the number and type of units the respective player has in this area; he uses a white die for each infantry unit, a gray die for each tank unit, and a black die for each aviation unit. He may roll a maximum of 3 dice, even if more units are involved in the fight. For each hit thrown, the opposing player must remove a unit of his choice from the area. If only one player or alliance units remain in the area after the end of a combat round, that player has won the fight. If the attacker wins, he advances his marker on the production point scale according to the production points of the area and the defender resets his marker accordingly. If the defender wins, the values ​​remain unchanged. If no player has any more units, the battle ends in a draw and the defender loses the corresponding production points for the area.

In the last phase of the game, the active player organizes his headquarters and follows the instructions of the app. There he can spend his production points on the military by recruiting new units, on research in different areas in order to receive bonuses, on diplomacy, to form alliances, on espionage and sabotage or on missions. Then the player ends his round and passes the tablet on to the next player.

Playing

The game ends when a player fulfills one of the victory conditions specified by the selected game scenario. That player ends and wins the game. Possible victory conditions are:

  • Military: The winner is the player who can enter the value given by the scenario or more when entering production points at the beginning of his turn.
  • Research: The winner is the player who has achieved the research progress determined by the scenario in all three research areas.
  • Missions:: The winner is the player who is awarded a certain badge of honor by completing missions.

In addition, depending on the selected scenario, there may be additional scenario-specific victory opportunities.

Extensions

For LEADERS: The Combined Strategy Game, Rudy Games published several expansions with new nations that bring their own characteristics to the game. The following expansions, each with nation-specific options and bonuses, have appeared:

Development and expenditure

The first edition of Leaders was published in 2013 by the Austrian publisher rudy games. This was the publisher's first game, which was later followed by more. A second, revised edition of the game followed in 2018 with the title Edition 18 , although, according to the publisher, the changes mainly affect the app and include new scenarios, new events and some improvements to the game's guidance.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n game instructions Leaders , rudy games 2018; accessed on February 23, 2019.
  2. ↑ Versions of LEADERS: The Combined Strategy Game in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on February 4, 2019.
  3. ↑ LEADERS: The Combined Strategy Game at rudy games; accessed on February 4, 2019.

Web links