Leaders is the 2011 expansion for the awesome card drafting and set collection title 7 Wonders. Published by Repos Production, the expansion – like the base game – was designed by Antoine Bauza and features artwork by Miguel Coimbra. Whilst the player count remains the same a few extra minutes are added to the game. Players won’t just be building wonders they will also be adding to their ranks by recruiting powerful leaders from Ramses to Hannibal. However, is the ease of play muddled by adding more? Let’s find out!
While the inclusion of Rome and new guilds shuffle in to the normal gameplay, Leaders brings in a few tweaks. Firstly during setup each player starts with 6 not 3 gold coins. Next, before the base game would start, each player is dealt 4 leaders. Leader cards are a completely new card type and not shuffled within any age – any left over are returned to the box. Rather than all four of the leaders being yours players go through a Leader draft. This sees players draft a total of 4 leaders by choosing one to keep and passing the rest on, until they have chosen 4 to keep.
Once ready to play prior to each age is a new phase, called the recruitment phase. This allows players the opportunity to use a leader card. There are three uses for leader cards, though one is to simply discard it for 3 gold. Players can purchase a leader card, gaining the benefit either instantly or at the end of the game depending on the leader. All leaders cost gold but come with a variety of abilities. These range from instantly having military symbols, getting more gold through to scoring points based upon science cards owned. The final use for a leader card, like any card, is to use it to build a wonder stage – though the normal costs apply.
Fitting between the normal rounds, and at the start, Leaders are otherwise independent from the ages. Apart from on going effects, like being able to pay a gold to the bank for any resource type once a turn, Leaders sit apart and don’t change the flow of the game. This isn’t to say that these new cards have no impact on the outcome of the game. There is often 5 – 10 points comfortably picked up from leaders at the end of the game. It isn’t enough to dominate the game but is plenty to swing a victory.
7 Wonders is one of the best starting games to introduce the concept of light but variable player powers. Each wonder has its own set of stages to be built that offer unique rewards and each comes with a different starting resource type. Leaders takes these easy concepts and just adds a little more player uniqueness. It is never enough to mean players are playing almost different games but the routes to victory can be rather different.
Drafting leaders at the beginning of the game is a brilliant way to negate the sense of a combination of leaders being unbalanced. When reading through the powers there are some that stand out or pair up nicely. Though simply put, if someone has a seemingly unbeatable combo then you quite literally handed them the cards in the Leader draft phase. This can mean in your first Leaders game someone gets an awesome group of leaders. Not only do they still need to be able to recruit 3 from their hand, if they do manage to players will watch out so it never happens again!
None of the leaders are negative. Some are far less situational than others and some are much better at guiding strategies. Drafting the likes of Hypatia or Varro, whom give points per science or gold card respectively, give a clear path to points. However, get these into play to early and players can easily “hate” draft cards – to stop you being able to get them. An example of a situational leader is Tomyris. She relies on your neighbours going for military. While you’ll want to recruit her quickly to maximise her potential of passing military lose tokens back to your neighbours, doing this too early will just alter your neighbour’s plans – leaving you with nothing.
On top of the leaders 4 new guild cards are included. Two of these require that the Leaders expansion be included, as they depend on leaders to have an affect. Shuffling these into the guild deck it isn’t guaranteed that they will appear. This somewhat limits the instant impact felt by the expansion, helping it integrate with the base sets over time. Alas, it does result in a few scans of the iconography sheet even after a few games as new symbols come up. 7 Wonders isn’t exactly an iconography light title anyway, so those used ot the base game won’t struggle. After a handful of games they will just be another obvious symbol.
A new heavily Leaders orientated wonder joins the pool, in the form of Rome and its Colosseum. Building its B side is all about drawing additional leaders and being able to play 2 extras – to total 5 leaders. Whilst not having a starting resource your leaders are 2 gold cheaper but your neighbours are 1 gold cheaper too. The A side is more normal with 10 points across the two stages. However, despite again coming with no starting resource every leader recruited is free! As with the guild cards this shuffles into the mix so is not guaranteed to come out, just furthering the variety. As powers go it is a bit of a mixed bag as you could end up having hold of some additional leaders that work with your situation or draw useless ones and then constructing the rest of your wonder is literally pointless…
From the solid production quality, through to the use of iconography, the Leaders expansion superbly blends with the base game of 7 Wonders. Whilst not best for those brand new to the game – mostly due to extra icons and not a difficulty increase – for experienced players it is a bit of a no brainer. Leaders adds additional choice and uniqueness to each player, yet hasn’t compromised the simplicity of the core 7 Wonders experience. After a few scans of the new icons list you’ll feel right at home and this should see the Leaders content never need to be separated – even storing nicely inside the base game box minus the expansion box itself.
[Editor’s note: 7 Wonders Leaders was provided to us by Asmodee for review purposes. The game is currently available on 365 Games for £16.99. It is also available from local board game stores, find your local store here]