The leaders are the town champions of the main bases of each of the territories. They're the ones that when you fight in the main hall, they have an auras on all the troops. After taking a town just fight their town champion. I hope this helps. :)
This game is highly repetitive especially when you find the magic mixture of 5 apaches, 5 tanks, and 2 artillery. One strike at the beginning of each round and the other after the first one stops.