Last weekend we played with Leaders for the first time. We liked the concept, but they ended ruining the game. We really dont like the diplomat, esspecially in 1 planet homesystems. They really stall the game, and make some secret objectives like "Mercilles" nearly impossible. Agent is also problem.
Also i think that because of fixing balance issues they subtract some of the flavor from races (L1z1x without admiral – flavor sacrificed becuse of balance, or Mentak WITH diplomat – just stupid, why pirates need diplomat?)
We still think it is a great concept, but design is poor. So we are divided between not playing with leaders anymore or trying to fix them in a way that they give more flavor. And ofcourse removing annoying diplomat.
I made some changes and i think these leader would be better... at least for our group.

AGENT
– Infiltrate –
Put your agent in target player's home system. You can do this only during your strategy phase

- sacrifice agent and chose one – look at infiltrated player's hand, chose 1 action card and take it (action)

- "sabotage" infiltrated player's action card

- assassinate infiltrated player's leader (action)

- During strategy phase you may look at one random action card from infiltrated player's hand

DIPLOMAT – this sucker is removed from game and replaced with 3 new leaders ( Trader, Ambassador and Engineer)

TRADER
Free Trade :when Trade SC is played, player controlling trader can exhaust planet containing him. He then can gain 1 TG for every player with active trade agreement. He can't gain more TG than exhausted planet resource value. Trader can use this ability only once per round.(action)
Embargo - exhaust planet containing your trader : exhaust planet your trade partner controls. You can't exhaust planet with more combined resources than planet containing your trader (action)

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During Trade Phase, you can agree with player who have your Trade Agreement to give him control of your trader. You must both agree on planet where he is placed. Each Trade Phase agreement can be changed or canceled. That player cannot move your trader or get rid of him until next Trade Phase. If TA is broken return Trader to home system.
When other player controls your trader he can use Free Trade, but cannot use Embargo. You can use new ability :Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy: sacrifice Trader: exhaust all planets in system containing him (action)

ENGINEER
-spacedock that contains engineer gain +1 build limit and +1 resource to spend)
-sacrifice engineer – repair ship containing him

AMBASADOR
Embassy - planet that contains ambassador doubles its influence value for purpose of voting on political agendas (up to +4 influence) – planet must be unexhausted for this bonus.
Exploatation of resources - exhaust planet and pay 1 influence – draw action card – you can do this only during strategy phase
Non-aggression pact -When Assembly is played you and any other player may agree to put this ambassador in his homesystem. You cannot use this ability if you used Exploatation of resources ability.
You cant activate eachothers systems. Both players can pay 1 command counter from command pool and broke the pact by returning Ambassador to your homesystem . You must play this as an action. During Strategy Phase return Ambassador to your homesystem automatically

Military leaders are slighlty reworked

ADMIRAL
Admiral ship - ship containing admiral gains 1 extra dice + 1 extra sustain damage and cant be targeted by action cards

GENERAL –
Mobilization :exhaust planet containing general. Gain ground forces equal to that planet's resource value (as an action)
Tactics : ground troops gain +1 on attack rolls

Removing the Diplomat and replacing it with the Trader, Ambassador and Engineer, how does that work? Are you saying that each Diplomat is removed and replaced with those three? If that were the case then Xxacha would have a total of seven leaders to keep track of, and every other diplomatic race would have five instead of three. Seems like that would slow things more than the Diplomat ever would. Alternatively, if each just gets one of those new three leaders in return for the Diplomat, how do you decide who gets what?

Our group always plays with leaders, and I've never noticed the Diplomat slowing things down that dramatically.

We played with Leaders for the first time last week and I was kinda surprised of how much those bastard can be game changing. I've been playin TI3 for 3 years now and we've never used them before last week. We didnt use them because it was too dificult to keep track of what Leader can do. Like each Leaders have its skill list. I would like it best if they were a 1 special skill units and if every races had 1 of each ''class'' (Admiral, Diplomat, etc). Because it's sure nice to start with 2 ''Free Sabotage'' or 2 ''Admiral Ships''. Maybe it gives too much of an edge to certain race when you figured the game. I'd rather have an equal set of units for every players. But this is the way I feel about it. I Know Leaders is a liked feature in TI3 and many,many players couldnt play without them. But hey! the game is designed so you can play with elements you like and ditch those you dont.

No...all races have 3 leaders like before...

Before there were 5 different kinds of leaders, and now there are 7, just distribution is different.

I remade whole distribution of leaders.This may screw some balance, but the game itself wasnt very balanced either.

It is still work in progress but i think it will look something like this

Base races

Hacan : Agent, Trader,ambassador
Jol-Nar : Scientist, Scientist, Trader
Letnev : Admiral, General, Engineer
L1z1x : Admiral, Scientist, Engineer/maybe agent
Mentak : Agent, Admiral, Engineer
Naalu : Agent, Admiral Ambassador
Sardakk N’orr : Admiral, General, General / OR 2x admiral 1x general
Sol : general/engineer/agent
Xxcha :Trader/or agent , Ambassador , Ambassador
Yssaril : Agent, Agent, Admiral/or ambassador

Expansions
Arborec – admiral general general
ghost of Creuss – trader admiral scientist
muaat – general scientist engineer
nekro - agent admiral general
Clan of Saar -agent admiral trader/or ambassador
winnu – agent ambassador scientist
yin – agent admiral general

I made some adjustments to Ambassador. This should improve political proces in game. Also it should made Xxcha's political influence even stronger.

Ambassadors now have 4 abilities (2nd and 3rd are new ) but they can't all be used in same round, and they need Command counters to use.

AMBASADOR
Embassy - planet that contains ambassador doubles its influence value for purpose of voting on political agendas (up to +4 influence) – planet must be unexhausted for this bonus.
Emergency legislative procedure : If you are playing political card you may pay 1 command counter from your Strategy Allocation to play additional political card.
Protection of minorities - exhaust planet containing Ambassador and pay X Command Counters from Strategy Allocation. Draw X political cards. You cannot draw more cards than exhausted planet's influence. Play this only during Strategy Phase. This Ambassador cannot use other abilities this round.
Non - aggression pact -When Assembly is played you and any other player may agree to put this ambassador in his homesystem.
You cant attack eachother system. Both players can pay 1 command counter from command pool and broke the pact, returning Ambassador to the system of your choice. (play as an action)
During Strategy Phase Ambassador is automaticaly returned to any system you control.