The Staufer Dynasty

Twelfth-century Europe, Henry VI on tour, and you are a noble who would like a bigger slice of it. The Staufer Dynasty has you placing envoys and nobles in six regions, from the Baltic coast down to Sicily, across five rounds with three actions each. The order you act in is set by your family members on the action board, from top to bottom, and each turn you either take supply (shuffling envoys and nobles to your court) or move and deploy them to the map. Regions score by majority, and the patterns your pieces form matter too. It is a modular-board thinker, around ninety minutes, full of small timing puzzles.