My cunning plan has worked!
A seemingly intransigent malaise regarding 7WD has been broken with the introduction of the Leaders expansion (free print and play rules and cards, but we have the optional Etsy ordered cards). If you P&P on thick photo paper, like I did with the 2 Wonders, then sleeve them, you will save $30au odd, but me being me, I had to get the cards :).
After a couple of games finding our feet again*, the base game with the 40 basic Leaders and the removal of Guilds, which we both find pointless and flow slowing, we have played up a storm.
The Leaders can add as much, but with a much less “epic” feel than the Pantheon expansion and with a great deal more variety. Without Guilds, all of the Third Age cards are dealt, but with Leaders, their effects can are often varied.
A cast of dozens, all with well balanced effects.
You can access most abilities available in the Pantheon (and Guilds), but without the mechanics required and a lot of new ones as well. There are chaining, VP benefits (including collecting various card combos), warfare, wealth, Wonder building, card burning/breaking/stealing/changing, turn change-ups, build mitigations, gaining/taking/stealing coin and others.
This means the straight base game with its ease of play and fluidity are basically left alone, but with many subtle (and some not so subtle) changes that can be introduced as your strategy allows.
Where it differs greatly from the Pantheon expansion, is in mechanical process and player awareness. The Pantheon expansion adds a very free flowing game, one that can literally flip the game in one players favour. The ability to purchase Gods at any time in the Second and Third Ages can offer some left field strategies. The Leaders, who can be as powerful, are much less dynamic, only coming at three fixed times in the game (an optional rule could be that you can play one at any time in an age).
Game processes however is far more straight forward than the Pantheon equivalent. The Pantheon adds several mechanical processes, which on related plays can be tiresome and the games footprint becomes noticeably larger.
Variety of Leader powers is comprehensive. Like Pantheon duplicates, many Wonders with God powers, they are further mimicked here and many more besides.
For example in warfare alone, you could get Caesar and Hannibal (shields), Cynisca (VP for avoiding invasion), Caligular (double enemy coin loss), Alexander (double VP for invading) Aspasia (cancels one conflict pawn move in either direction), Nero (gain coin lost by opponent), Semiranis (counter attacking shield after an enemy scores a victory token), Tomysis (your invader loses same coin as you) and Telesilla (dumps an invasion token). These effects match the 4 Gods and offer plenty of other effects as well as often being ongoing, while giving a more grass roots feel.
Some tend to define (telegraph**) your strategy from turn one for better or worse (often the military or chaining ones), but unlike Pantheon, they are at your discretion and are not mandated by the fates or connected to convoluted processes and also, they tend to be more balanced in effect.
You can strategically sit on a good leader and see if the required builds eventuate, play it up front for added edge or just burn it for coin.
They are your secret weapon to use or not.
We have modified the play sequence slightly.
We deal out 3 random Leaders face down each before any other game process, so the emergence of the great names of the past are not pre-destined. This seems to make sense to us and changes little in reality. The open dealing and player choice with a 4th Leader, in the rules as written, seem to be a way of adding some “fog of war”, but we feel 3 just dealt secretly does the same. Player choice of Wonders feels right as the aspirations of a society are likely baked in, but leaders are born, not chosen. We have also decided not to increase starting coin. Seven is plenty as the Leaders, if worth getting at all are a genuine strategic gambit or free coin. Some are even free.
Some games have been greatly effected by them, one was won entirely thanks to a pair of them and in some games, they just get cashed in (Meg tends to cash them in, I use them more, with mixed benefit).
Of course, there are other Leaders we have not tried in the Pantheon expansion, but we now feel like we have several quite different games at our disposal;
Duel “Classic” with basic Leaders (Guilds optional),
Duel “Mythic” with Pantheon only,
Duel “Legendary” with Pantheon and all Leaders,
Duel “Civil War” with Agora and optionally the basic Leaders.
The yet to be tried “Epic” with everything (including Guilds mixed in to Age 3 with Temples).
Most importantly, a game favourite is back in play.
*In our first game, we tapped out the bank (109 coin with the new metal ones), making me think we needed more, but that went away next game. Not sure what happened there. Since then most games have been decided by a less than 10 point spread, showing us that the Leaders have retained the basic games balance.
**Like the game where I played Archimedes for free Science chaining symbols, so Meg grabbed two pairs/tokens out from under me as a foil and I ended up with two only. The end result was Meg gaining more love for the greens!