The Staufer Dynasty

It’s the twelfth century. As Henry VI tours the Staufer family’s influential regions of eastern Europe, players represent nobles trying to impress the king by politicking these regions under your control. It’s a game of shifting sands and tactical chicanery…

But it’s also a game where the theme kind of evaporates on playing and it becomes more of an abstract puzzle of many parts. In each of the game’s five rounds, players will know the next region he’s going to move to; and so you can scheme in getting your envoys there ahead of time and looking like the big cheese by occupying either the most, or the most powerful, office seats. There are multiple office seats in each region (between three and five) and points will be awarded – when the king arrives – for first, second and third place holding influence in office. But how do you get your envoys into office?

Well, the king himself begins in a randomly-selected region and throughout the game, players are considered to be wherever the king is. When you want to send your envoys on to a different region, you must take a move/deploy action: traveling clockwise and pay in envoys: for the act of travelling (one envoy per region, placed in the region you pass through and arrive at) and for the act of assuming control of an available seat: each one costs X number of envoys to take it, and these must be also placed on the board, going clockwise from the region you take the seat in. Whenever you take a seat, however, you get to take the bonus book next to it: we’ll come to those shortly.

So with all the envoys needed there’s a demand for a large retinue. You begin with a small one but in each round you’ll take three actions; and when you’re not taking a move/deploy action – either because you can’t afford to or because tactically you have better ideas – you can take a supply action instead. A supply action is easy: it’s just a way of getting more envoys at your disposal – although the first player to take each available supply action in any round also gets to take a book as well. So let’s talk about books.

Although the Staufer Dynasty’s key economy is the ever-scurrying staff of envoys, books are critical to success. Each one either gives you points, or a very helpful one-use special power (eg free travel) or combine with other books in order to cash in a pair for a seal. Seals are similar to special power books, only better: they are not single-use, but instead give you ongoing benefits until the end of the game, or are worth considerable points.

At the centre of the board is a track that defines player turn order for your three actions-per-round, which changes depending on which players took which actions. It might initially seem an additional mechanical flourish, but turn order has considerable import in a game of the Staufer Dynasty! When the king moves for the last time and regions are scored, points are totted up for the final time too. Players will also have some hidden objectives to score for as well: dominating a particular region, say, or having seats of office dotted around according to a certain pattern. Most points: wins!