The Staufer Dynasty Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About These Rules
• Game Components
• Game Setup
• Game Play
• A Player's Turn
  • The Supply Action in Detail
  • The Move/Deploy Action in Detail
• Region Scoring
• Cleanup Phase
• Game End – Final Scoring for Contract Cards and Treasure Chests
  • Contract Cards
  • Treasure Chests
• Supplement
  • Treasure Chests
  • Privilege Cards
  • Conditions of Round Tiles (to determine Region Scoring)
  • Region Bonuses
  • Contract Cards
• A Bit of History

About These Rules

Many of the rules in this game have special cases that may change or contradict the normal rules. Therefore, we have decided not to include explanations of those special cases in the normal rules sections, as they would be confusing upon the first reading. Instead, these special cases are explained at the end of each section in a box marked ?. We recommend skipping these boxes, and only referring to them if that special case occurs.

Some game elements are explained in more detail — and for easy reference — in the included rules Supplement. If you find a reference to one of these elements in the main rules, you can refer to the Supplement if you'd like to know about it immediately. These references to the Supplement are marked in the rules with an "inconspicuous glance" symbol. Alternatively, you may just as easily read through the complete main rules now and save the fine details included in the Supplement for a later time; it's all up to your preference.

Important! Many of the game materials have markings to designate the number of players (for example, a game piece marked to show it is used for 4 or 5 players). Always pay attention to the Game Setup sections that are marked "Note number of players!" to make sure that you use the correct side of the component matching the current number of players.

Game Components

• 1 Action Board
• 6 Region Boards
• 6 Scoring Tiles
• 1 Supply Board
• 72 Treasure Chests
  • 16x orange
  • 28x turquoise
  • 10x brown
  • 18x purple
• 1 Scoring Track
• 15 25-Point Tiles (Silver Medal)
• 5 100-Point Tiles (Gold Medal)
• 35 Privilege Cards
  • 15 privileges with a blue seal (for the first game)
  • 20 privileges with a red seal
• 75 Envoys (15 each in the 5 player colors)
• 15 Nobles (3 each in the 5 player colors)
• 20 Family Members (4 each in the 5 player colors)
• 18 Contract Cards
• 19 Round Tiles (6x A, 6x B, 6x C, 1x Final Scoring)
• 1 Game Overview Card
• 2 Evaluation Markers
• 1 King Henry VI Figure

Game setup for the Envoys, Nobles, Family Members, Contract Cards, and Round Tiles is explained below.

Game Setup

1. Place the Action Board in the center of the table (note number of players!). It shows the Turn Order Track, the Move/Deploy Track, and the Supply Track.

2. Place the 6 Region Boards as shown, surrounding the Action Board, in random order. Each Region Board shows a King space, a Region name/Payment space, a Scoring Tile space, a Region bonus, office seats, an Evaluation Marker space, and Treasure Chest spaces (note number of players!).

3. Shuffle the 6 Scoring Tiles and place one on the Scoring Tile space of each Region (note number of players!).

4. Place the Supply Board so that it is easily accessible to all players (note number of players!).

5. Shuffle all of the Treasure Chests face down to create a face down supply. Place one Treasure Chest face up under each space on the Supply Board, so the icons on it are visible. Then, place one Treasure Chest face up under each office seat in each Region. Note: Wherever a Treasure Chest is to be placed, a chest icon is shown.

6. Place the Scoring Track so that it is easily accessible to all players. Set the 25-Point and 100-Point Tiles nearby.

7. Separate out the Privilege Cards with a blue seal from the rest of the cards. The 5 cards showing a Victory Point symbol in the upper right corner are Victory Point privileges. Sort them according to their point value and place them as a face up stack, with the highest point value at the top, to lowest value at the bottom. The point values used depend on the number of players:

   • 2 Players: the two lowest values.
   • 3 Players: the three lowest values.
   • 4 Players: the four lowest values.
   • 5 Players: use all Victory Point privileges.

   Return all unused Victory Point privileges back to the box. Place the remaining 10 Privilege Cards with blue seals face up in 5 stacks, with each stack containing 2 matching privileges (use only 1 each in a 2-player game).

   Note: The Privilege Cards with red seals are not used in your first game. You may use them in further games, after becoming familiar with the starting privileges. For more information, see page 2 of the Supplement.

8. Each player chooses a color and takes 4 Envoys and 1 Noble in the chosen color. These are placed in front of him as a personal supply, and are called his "Court". All remaining Envoys and Nobles are placed in a general supply near the game board, and are referred to as the "Province".

9. The player who was last in the Mediterranean is the starting player, and places one of his Family Members as an Action Figure, on space "1" of the Turn Order Track on the Action Board.

   In clockwise order, the other players follow by placing one of their Family Members on the next 3 spaces. Now, beginning with the last player and continuing counterclockwise, each player places his second Family Member on the Turn Order Track. Finally, this step is repeated with each player's third Family Member (counterclockwise, starting with the last player).

   Each player then places his fourth Family Member on the "25/0" space of the Scoring Track.

10. Sort the Contract Cards by their category (Region; blue/pattern; red/office seat) into 3 stacks. Shuffle each of the stacks separately and deal one from each stack to each player, face down. The remaining Contract Cards will not be used and are returned to the box without revealing them.

11. Sort the Round Tiles face down by their back sides, shuffle the stacks separately, and place them as a display next to the game board as shown below:

    • The 6 "A" tiles each show 1 of the 6 Regions. Randomly set 5 of these face up next to the game board in a column. Temporarily set aside the unused 6th tile for step 12.
    • The 6 "B" tiles each show a game condition. Randomly set 5 of these face up to the right of the Region tiles. Return the unused 6th tile back to the box.
    • The 6 "C" tiles each show the King Figure with a number, along with some other symbols. Randomly set 4 of these face up to the right of the condition tiles in the first 4 rows. Return the 2 unused tiles back to the box.
    • The remaining Round Tile (Final Scoring) is placed at the right of the 5th row of tiles, under the "C" tiles.

    This creates a Round display for the game. Place the Game Overview Card so that it is accessible to all players.

12. Place 1 of the 2 Evaluation Markers in the square Evaluation Marker space of the Region that is shown on the first "A" Region tile in the Round display. Place the other marker above the "B" tiles column.

13. Lastly, place the King Henry VI Figure on the King space in the Region shown on the "A" tile which was set aside in step 11. (This tile can now be returned to the box.) The Region in which the King currently resides is referred to as the "King's Region".

The game can now begin!

Game Play

In The Staufer Dynasty, players do not necessarily take their turns in a typical clockwise order. Instead, turn order is determined by the order of the Action Figures on the Turn Order Track. The player on space "1" takes his turn first in a given round, followed by the player on space "2", etc. Each player has 3 Action Figures on the Turn Order Track; therefore, each player will take 3 turns during each round.

After all players have taken their 3 turns, the round ends with a Region Scoring, and then a Cleanup Phase. A new round then begins.

A total of 5 rounds are played. At the end of each round, a Region Scoring takes place, as already mentioned. However, at the end of the final round, the Cleanup Phase is omitted. Instead, players will perform a Final Scoring. After the Final Scoring, the game ends, and the player with the most points is the winner.

A Player's Turn

Whenever one of your Action Figures are at the top of the Turn Order Track, it is your time to take a turn.

On your turn, you will pick up this Action Figure and move it to one of the two following areas: the Supply Track or the Move/Deploy Track.

Supply Track: If you are the first player to place his Action Figure on the Supply Track in a round, place it on the top space of the track. If there are already other figures on the track, place your figure on the next available space in the direction of the arrow. After placing your figure on the track, you will carry out the Supply Action.

Move/Deploy Track: If you are the first player to place his Action Figure on the Move/Deploy Track in a round, place it on the very bottom space of the track. If there are already other figures on the track, place your figure on the next available space in the direction of the arrow. If the space on which you place your figure shows an Envoy, you may immediately take an Envoy in your color from the "Province" (general supply) and place it in your "Court" (personal supply). Note: You may use these extra Envoys in your following actions. After placing your figure on the track, you will carry out the Move/Deploy Action.

What happens when you take the Supply Action? With this action, you take Envoys and Nobles of your color from the "Province" (general supply) into your "Court" (personal supply). You will need these Envoys and/or Nobles in order to take the other action: Move/Deploy.

What happens when you take the Move/Deploy Action? With this action, you will travel to a Region where you will place one of your Envoys or Nobles on an empty office seat. You are attempting to occupy the majority of office seats in a given Region with your Envoys and/or Nobles.

The Supply Action in Detail

After placing your Action Figure on the Supply Track, choose one of the 5 spaces on the Supply Board and take the figures (Envoys and/or Nobles) depicted there in your color from the "Province" (general supply), and place them in your "Court" (personal supply). Take one of the following: 1 Envoy and 1 Noble; 1 Noble; 2 Envoys; 1 Envoy; or no figures.

In addition, you also take the Treasure Chest that lies below your chosen Supply Board space. The Treasure Chests provide certain benefits and help you throughout the game. The functions of the Treasure Chests are described in detail on Pages 1 and 2 of the Supplement.

? Questions or special cases regarding the Supply Action (may be skipped on your first reading)

• What happens if I choose to take an Envoy or a Noble into my Court, but the Province contains no figures of my color? In this case, you may take the needed figure from the payment space of any of the Regions.
• What happens if I choose to take a Noble into my Court, but neither the Province nor the payment spaces of any Region contain a Noble of my color? In this case, you may take an Envoy instead of the Noble.
• When are the Treasure Chests replenished? The Chests are not refilled immediately upon one or more of them being taken. They are only refilled during the Cleanup Phase.
• May I choose a Supply Board space that doesn't have a Treasure Chest under it? Yes, you may. You will receive the appropriate Envoys and/or Nobles, but no Treasure Chest.
• Later in the game, it is possible that there will be several Treasure Chests under a Supply Board space. If so, you may take all of the Chests there when selecting that space.

The Move/Deploy Action in Detail

After placing your Action Figure on the Move/Deploy Track, place one of your Envoys or Nobles on an empty office seat in any one of the 6 Regions. You may choose any available office seat that is not already occupied.

Important: In the following explanation, Envoys and Nobles are usually used in an equal manner. Therefore, we will use "Figures" as an overall term. Only in cases where Envoys and Nobles are treated differently will we use one or the other exact term.

To perform the Move/Deploy action, carry out the following two steps:

1. Move

If you want to occupy an office seat in a Region other than the King's Region, you first need to move there. To do this, you will need to place 1 figure in each traveled Region. This placement, or "payment", begins with the next Region that lies clockwise from the King's Region, and continues clockwise from there, ending in the target Region. (Thus, the maximum number of figures you will ever need to place during one Move step is 5.)

The figures that you will use as payment are always taken from your Court, and are always placed in the Payment space of each Region (found in its upper area).

Example: Gabi would like to occupy an office seat in the Aachen Region. In order to do this, she must first move there. The King currently resides in Nijmegen. Therefore, Gabi places 1 figure in the Payment space of each of the 2 Regions traveled through, and also in the target Region of Aachen. Her Move step is now complete.

If you would like to occupy an office seat in the King's Region, you do not need to place any figures with the Move step, and may continue directly to step 2: Deploy.

2. Deploy

In this step you will occupy an office seat in the Region you have moved to. Next to each office seat is a number. This number represents the "payment cost", in figures, for this seat. The first figure used as payment (taken from your Court) is placed on the office seat itself. The remaining figures in the payment cost (also taken from your Court) are placed in the Payment spaces of adjacent Regions, starting clockwise from the target Region, one figure per Region, until the payment cost is fulfilled.

Note: For easier distinction, we recommend placing all figures used as "payment" lying down in the Payment spaces, and all figures occupying office seats standing up in the office seat spaces.

Example: Gabi has occupied an office seat with a payment cost of 5. This means that she needs to "pay" 5 figures from her Court. She stands the first figure directly on the office seat space, and lays 1 figure each in the Payment spaces of the next 4 Regions, traveling clockwise. Her Deploy step is now complete.

Whenever you occupy an office seat, take the Treasure Chest that lies below the office seat space. The Treasure Chests provide certain benefits and help you throughout the game. The functions of the Treasure Chests are described in detail on Pages 1 and 2 of the Supplement.

In order to occupy an office seat, you must be able to fully perform both steps (1. Move and 2. Deploy) of the Move/Deploy Action. If you cannot do this, you must either select a different office seat or perform a Supply Action instead.

Office seats with a Noble icon: Some of the office seats on the game board show a gold Noble icon. These seats may only be occupied by a Noble figure; when you are paying the cost for such a seat, you must place a Noble figure on that space.

Example of a full Move/Deploy Action: Rudi decides to occupy a circled office seat. He therefore performs the following two steps. 1. Move: The King is currently in Nijmegen. The circled office seat is 2 Regions away, clockwise. Rudi needs to move first, before occupying the office seat. He places 1 figure each in the Regions of Strasbourg and Palermo. 2. Deploy: The circled office seat space shows a payment cost of 6. This means that Rudi needs to pay a total of 6 figures in order to occupy the seat. There is also a gold Noble icon on the office seat space. Rudi first stands a Noble there, which counts as the first of the 6 figures in the payment cost. He then lays 5 more figures from his Court clockwise from there. Finally, he may take the purple Treasure Chest that lies under the occupied office seat.

? Questions or special cases regarding the Move/Deploy Action (may be skipped on your first reading)

• Can I use Nobles to pay for both the Move and the Deploy steps? Yes, you may use Nobles in either case. However, using Nobles in the Payment spaces offers you no advantages over using Envoys.
• May I place Nobles on office seat spaces even if they do not show a Noble icon on them? Yes, you may place Nobles on all unoccupied office seat spaces.
• When I place my Action Figure on a Move/Deploy Track space that earns me an Envoy, may I use that Envoy immediately? Yes, you first move the Envoy into your Court and you may then use it for that turn's action.
• Later in the game, it is possible that there will be several Treasure Chests under an office seat space. If so, you may take all of the Chests there when occupying that seat.

Once you have performed a Supply or Move/Deploy Action, your turn is ended, and it is now the next player's turn. When all players have taken their turn this round (i.e., there are no Action Figures on the Turn Order Track), the round ends, and a Region Scoring occurs.

Treasure Chests and Privilege Cards: In addition to your selected action in a turn, you may also use one or more of your Treasure Chests and/or Privilege Cards. The functions of these items are described in detail on Pages 1–3 of the Supplement.

Region Scoring

At the end of each round, 1 or 2 Regions will be scored. Players receive points according to majorities in those Regions.

How does the scoring in a Region take place? The following steps are performed:

1. Determine majority

Count the number of occupied office seats each player has in the Region. Office seats that are occupied by Nobles count double when determining totals. The player with the highest total has majority in that Region, with the other players following in order of descending totals. If more than 1 player has the same total of occupied office seats, the majority is awarded to the player who occupies the Region's office seat furthest to the left (usually the more expensive seat).

Example 1: Bettina is occupying 2 office seats in the Region. Rudi is occupying only 1. Bettina therefore has the majority in the Region, with Rudi in second place.

Example 2: Rudi is occupying 1 office seat in the Region, Gabi occupies 2, and Günter occupies 1 seat with a Noble (which counts double). Therefore, Gabi and Günter are tied with 2 seats each. Since Gabi occupies the seat further to the left, she wins the tie, and thus has the majority in the Region. Günter is in second place, and Rudi is in third place with his 1 occupied office seat. (Since Bettina does not occupy any office seats in this Region, she will not be included in this Region's scoring.)

2. Distribute points

The Scoring Tile in a Region determines how many points will be distributed for it. The player with the majority in the Region receives the highest number of points shown on the Scoring Tile. The player in second place for majority receives the second number on the tile. In a 4- or 5-player game, the player in third place for majority will also receive points, but the players in fourth and fifth place receive no points! Players move their Scoring Figures ahead on the Scoring Track according to the number of points received.

Example: Gabi has the majority, and receives 7 points. Günter, in second place, receives 4 points, and Rudi, in third place, receives 3 points. The players move their Scoring Figures ahead on the Scoring Track.

3. Distribute Region bonus

In each Region, a Region bonus is shown, which is now distributed to the players. The functions of these bonuses are described in detail on Page 3 of the Supplement.

Example: Gabi has the majority, and moves 2 Envoys from the Province to her Court. Günter receives the second bonus, which lets him move 1 Envoy into his Court. Rudi does not receive a Region bonus.

How do you determine which Regions are scored during a Region Scoring? Only those Regions that contain an Evaluation Marker will be scored.

Where are the Evaluation Markers located? The first Evaluation Marker is located in the Region shown on the first ("A") Region tile in the Round display. This is the first Region to be scored.

The second Evaluation Marker should currently be above the "B" tiles column in the Round display, and it is moved at the beginning of the Region Scoring. It is placed in the Region that meets the condition on the "B" tile of the current round. The conditions on these tiles are described in detail on Page 3 of the Supplement. This is the second Region to be scored.

Note: If both Evaluation Markers refer to the same Region, only 1 Evaluation Marker is placed there. The same Region is never scored twice in a round.

The Region Scoring is followed by a Cleanup Phase. The third tile ("C") in the current Round display row shows this information; these tiles are explained in the following section.

Note: There is no Cleanup Phase in the final round. You will immediately conduct a Final Scoring instead.

? Questions or special cases regarding the Region Scoring (may be skipped on your first reading)

• The second Evaluation Marker: You may determine the placement for the second Evaluation Marker during the round, in order to speed up the Region Scoring process. Remember, however, that the final determination of its placement may change throughout the round, and is only scored at the end of the round.
• Can a Region be scored more than once in the same round? No! If both Evaluation Markers refer to the same Region, it is only scored once.
• Determining the Majority in a Region: In determining the majority for any Region, only the figures on office seat spaces are considered. Figures in the Payment spaces do not affect the majority totals.
• Players who do not occupy any office seats in a Region earn no points when it is scored.

Cleanup Phase

(with the exception of the final round)

After scoring, things need to be cleaned up a little bit for the next round. (The King isn't going to do it himself!)

1. Vacate office seats

First, all figures on office seats of the scored Regions are returned to the Province. Example: Rudi, Gabi, and Günter return all of their figures on the office seats back to the Province.

2. Replenish Treasure Chests

Place a new Treasure Chest face up under each office seat of the scored Regions, and then do the same for each space under the Supply Board. Note: If there is already a Chest under an office seat or Supply Board space, they remain there, and a new Chest is simply placed on top of it.

3. The King travels

At the end of each round, the King moves 1, 2, or 3 Regions. The "C" Round tile indicates how many steps the King makes in the current round. For each step, the King moves clockwise 1 Region.

As the King travels through a Region, the Payment space of the Region will be cleared. All players who have figures in that Payment space will return them to their Court. This applies to all Regions the King moves through, as well as the one he ends his movement in.

Note: The figures from the Payment spaces through which the King travels are all returned to the players' Courts, with the exception of figures in the Region the King resided in before movement.

4. Return Round tiles to the box

Remove the 3 Round tiles from the top row of the Round display and return them to the box. The Round tiles that now lie in the top row will be active in the next round.

To reset the Evaluation Markers for the next round: Place the first marker in the Scoring Marker space of the Region that is now shown in the top row of the Round display. Place the second marker above the "B" tiles column, as done in the previous round(s).

5. Turn order for the following round

As the final step in the Cleanup Phase, you determine the turn order for the next round. To do this, first move all of the Action Figures from the Supply Track back to the Turn Order Track in this way: the uppermost Figure on the Supply Track moves to space "1" on the Turn Order Track, and then the remaining figures follow from top to bottom, in the same order in which they appear on the Supply Track. Thus, the player who performed the Supply Action first in the previous round will take the first turn in the next round.

Next, the Action Figures from the Move/Deploy Track are moved to the Turn Order Track. This is also done in the order in which they appear on the Move/Deploy Track, from top to bottom, with each figure moved to the next available space on the Turn Order Track. In doing this, the player who performed the Move/Deploy Action first in the previous round will take the last turn in the next round.

At this point, a new round begins. The following rounds will be carried out exactly as the previous round. However, at the end of the final round, there will not be a Cleanup Phase and movement of the King. Instead, after the Region Scoring, you proceed directly to the Final Scoring. Any figures still occupying office seats will remain there for the Final Scoring.

? Questions or special cases regarding the Cleanup Phase (may be skipped on your first reading)

• What happens when the draw stack of Treasure Chests is empty? If this happens, simply shuffle the previously discarded Chests to form a new draw stack.
• Just as a reminder: The game is played over 5 rounds. After rounds 1–4, there is a Cleanup Phase. After the 5th round, the Cleanup Phase is replaced by the Final Scoring. Any figures remaining on office seats after the final Region Scoring are left there, to be evaluated again during the Final Scoring.

Game End – Final Scoring for Contract Cards and Treasure Chests

For clarity, we suggest removing all remaining figures from the Payment spaces in the Regions before the Final Scoring. These figures play no part in the Final Scoring.

Contract Cards

You now reveal your 3 Contract Cards, and evaluate them to see if you will earn points from them. Each Contract Card shows a specific condition, and a point value. The individual Contract Cards are described in detail on page 4 of the Supplement. If you have fulfilled the condition on the card, you receive the points indicated on it.

Note: The conditions on the red and blue Contract Cards may be fulfilled multiple times; if this occurs, you can receive the point values several times.

Example:

1. Region Contract Cards: Rudi has the Augsburg Contract Card. However, since he is in second place for majority, he only receives 6 points.
2. Blue "pattern" Contract Cards: Rudi has the Contract Card shown. He satisfies the pattern condition twice, and therefore receives 14 points (twice the indicated 7 points). Note that each figure may only score for 1 pattern.
3. Red "office seat" Contract Cards: Rudi has the Contract Card shown. At game end, he is occupying 3 office seats with a Payment cost of 4, so he receives 12 points, as indicated on the Contract Card.

For his 3 Contract Cards, Rudi receives a total of 6 + 14 + 12 = 32 points and moves his Scoring Figure forward that many spaces on the Scoring Track. Since he passes the "25/0" space, he takes one of the 25-Point Tiles.

Treasure Chests

For the last step of the Final Scoring, players receive points for their Treasure Chests earned during the game.

First, count the number of brown chests you have in front of you. The points received are dependent on the total number of brown chests owned: for 1 chest you receive 2 points; for 2 chests, 5 points; for 3 chests, 9 points; etc. If you have more than 5 brown chests, you simply start a new tally. After scoring all brown chests, they are returned to the box.

Finally, for every turquoise and purple chest you have in front of you, you earn an additional 1 point each.

Example: Rudi has collected 7 brown chests. He therefore receives 20 points for a full set of 5 chests, and another 5 points for the extra set of 2 chests. In addition, Rudi has 2 turquoise and 1 purple chest, which earn him 3 more points. Rudi thus receives a total of 28 points for his chests, which he indicates by moving his Scoring Figure forward accordingly. Each time he passes the "25/0" space on the Scoring Track, he takes a 25-Point Token. When he has collected 4 of these, he may exchange them for a 100-Point Token.

The player with the most victory points wins the game. In case of a tie for victory points, the winner is the player with the most figures remaining in his Court. If there is still a tie, the winner is the player with the bluest blood!

Supplement

Treasure Chests

On your turn, you may use one or more of your accumulated Treasure Chests; however, some of them may only be used in connection with a particular action. Here are the chests in detail:

Orange Chests – Immediate benefit. If you take an orange Chest, you immediately gain its benefit, and then place the Chest on the discard pile.

• Victory points: Immediately gain the specified number of victory points (2, 3, 4, or 5).
• Envoy: Immediately take the specified number of Envoys (1, 2, or 3) into your Court.
• Noble: Immediately take 1 Noble from the Province into your Court.

Turquoise Chests – One-time benefit. If you take a turquoise Chest, place it in front of you. From now on, you may use its benefit once. After using its benefit, place the Chest on the discard pile.

• Action Figure at first position: You may use this Chest before you place one of your Action Figures on either of the two Action Tracks. Perform either the Supply or Move/Deploy Action as usual. However, instead of placing your Action Figure on the corresponding track according to the usual rules, place it in the first position on the Supply Track. (If there are already other figures on the track, move them all down to create a space for your figure.)

• Supplies: When performing the Supply Action, you choose one of the spaces on the Supply Board, and take the figures there as usual. However, instead of taking the Treasure Chest below the chosen space, you may take the Chest(s) under a different Supply Board space (you may do this even if there are no Chests under your chosen space). Example: Bettina takes 1 Envoy and 1 Noble. Instead of taking the brown Chest under this space, she decides to take the purple chest.

• No movement cost: You may use this Chest when performing the Move/Deploy Action. If you do, you may skip the first step of this action: "1. Move", and immediately place one of your figures in an unoccupied office seat of your choice without paying any movement cost.

• No payment cost to Deploy: You may use this Chest when performing the Move/Deploy Action. If you do, then in the second step of this action: "2. Deploy", you may occupy an office seat with your Envoy or Noble without having to pay the usual payment cost of additional figures.

  You may use both Chests above ("No movement cost" and "No payment cost to Deploy") on the same turn to combine their benefits. You would then only need 1 Envoy or Noble to occupy an office seat of your choice. You would not need to pay any additional figures.

• Keep figure on office seat: You may use this Chest during the Cleanup Phase. If you do, you may keep one of your figures on an office seat, instead of returning it to the general supply, after scoring it.

Brown Chests – Game end. If you take a brown Chest, place it in front of you. Brown chests will be scored at the end of the game. In the Final Scoring, you will gain points depending on the total number of brown Chests owned, as shown on the Chest. If you have more than 5 brown Chests, you start a new tally. Example: If you have 3 brown Chests at the end of the game, you gain 9 points. If you have 7 brown chests, you gain 25 (20 + 5) points.

Purple Chests – Privileges. If you take a purple Chest, place it in front of you. If at any time you have 2 purple Chests in front of you, you may discard them both and take one Privilege card of your choice. You may have at most only 1 of each type of Privilege card. You also may have only 1 of the Victory Point privilege cards.

Privilege Cards

You can play each game of "The Staufer Dynasty" with a different set of Privilege cards in play. The Privilege cards are marked with numbers from 1 through 16. You will always use card sets of 6 different numbers. For the Victory Point privileges, follow the default setup shown on page 2 of the main rules. For the rest of the privileges, use 2 of each card of 5 other numbers. (In further games, you may try using only 1 card of each number.)

Suggested themed Privilege card decks to try:

• Alternatives Set (after 2nd game): 1, 2, 5, 8, 11, 14
• Synergies (after 4th game): 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 16
• It's Raining Points (after 5th game): 1, 2, 6, 9, 13, 16
• Quantity over Quality (after 6th game): 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12
• Publisher's Recommendation (after 7th game)
• Partially Random Deck: 1, 2, and 4 of your own choice

You may also try creating your own deck, or leaving it completely to chance (after your 10th game).

The functions of the individual privilege cards:

1. Immediately: If you take one of these privileges, you immediately and once gain the victory points shown on the card. After moving your Scoring Figure, place this card in front of you as a reminder that you may not take another of this type.
2. Move/Deploy: With this privilege, you may occupy an office seat that is already occupied (by yourself or a teammate). Place your figure on the same office seat space, to the right of the one already there. There may never be more than 2 figures on any given office seat. During the Region and Final Scorings, an office seat occupied by 2 figures is treated as if it were 2 separate seats.
3. Move/Deploy: With this privilege, whenever you occupy an office seat with an Envoy, you may immediately, and free of charge, place another Envoy from your Court on the same office seat. There may never be more than 2 figures on any given office seat. During the Region and Final Scorings, an office seat occupied by 2 figures is treated as if it were 2 separate seats.
4. Move/Deploy: During the "2. Deploy" step of your Move/Deploy action, you always pay only 3 figures, regardless of the payment cost next to the office seat. (Combined with card #5, you only pay 2.)
5. Move/Deploy: During the "2. Deploy" step of your Move/Deploy action, you always pay 1 figure less than the payment cost shown next to the office seat. (Combined with card #4, you only pay 2.)
6. Move/Deploy: Whenever you occupy an office seat in the King's Region, you will immediately gain 3 victory points. (Combined with card #3, you gain 6 points.)
7. Supply: Whenever you perform the Supply action, you may take 1 additional Envoy in addition to the figures taken from the chosen space.
8. Supply: Whenever you perform the Supply action, you may take 1 additional Treasure Chest from the face down supply.
9. Supply: Whenever you perform the Supply action, you gain an additional 2 victory points.
10. Move/Deploy: During the "1. Move" step of your Move/Deploy action, you always pay only 1 figure. You place this figure directly in the target Region in which you want to occupy an office seat. (Combined with card #11, movement is free.)
11. Move/Deploy: During the "1. Move" step of your Move/Deploy action, you always skip the first 2 Regions when placing figures on the way to the target Region. For example, moving to a Region 4 steps away only requires a figure on the 3rd and 4th Regions. (With card #10, movement is free.)
12. Move/Deploy: During the "1. Move" step of your Move/Deploy action, if you wish to occupy an office seat in 1 of the 2 neighboring Regions (left or right) of the King's Region, you may do so without paying any movement cost. To occupy a seat in any other Region, you pay the usual movement cost.
13. Cleanup Phase: Instead of returning your figures in scored Regions back to the Province, you may return them to your Court.
14. Region Scoring: When distributing points in a Region for majority, you gain extra points as follows: 3 extra points if you are in 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, and 1 point for 3rd place. (In a 2-player game, the extra points for 2nd and 3rd place are not awarded.)
15. Region Scoring: Whenever you have occupied at least 1 office seat in a scored Region, you gain 2 extra points.
16. Treasure Chests: Whenever you take an orange Chest, you immediately gain 2 extra points.

You may combine privileges if you have several cards.

Conditions of Round Tiles (to determine Region Scoring)

• King's Region: You score the Region where the King stands.
• Region with the fewest Treasure Chests: You score the Region that contains the least number of chests.
• Region with the most occupied office seats: You score the Region in which the greatest number of office seats are occupied. (Seats with 2 figures count as 2 seats.)

If multiple Regions meet a condition, the scored Region is the one that lies closest to the King's Region in a clockwise direction. The Evaluation Marker is placed in the first Region that meets the condition.

Region Bonuses

Whenever a Region is scored, the following corresponding bonuses will also be distributed:

• Augsburg – 2 Treasure Chests: When this Region is scored, reveal 2 Treasure Chests from the face down supply. The player with majority in the Region may take 1 of the chests, and the player in 2nd place may take the other.
• Aachen – Treasure Chests: When this Region is scored, reveal as many Treasure Chests from the face down supply as the number of players. The player with majority in the Region may take 1 of the chests. Then the 2nd place player takes 1 of the remaining chests, etc. Any player who has occupied at least 1 office seat in Aachen receives a chest. All remaining chests are discarded.
• Strasbourg – +2/+1 Envoys: When this Region is scored, the player with majority may take 2 Envoys from the Province into his Court. The player in 2nd place gets 1 Envoy. (The 2nd place Envoy is also awarded in a 2-player game.)
• Nijmegen – +1 Envoy: When this Region is scored, all players occupying at least 1 office seat in the Region take 1 Envoy of their color from the Province into their Court.
• Palermo – +3/+1 Victory Points: When this Region is scored, the player with majority gains 3 extra points. The player in 2nd place gets 1 extra point (also awarded in a 2-player game).
• Milano – +2 Victory Points: When this Region is scored, all players occupying at least 1 office seat in the Region gain 2 extra points.

Contract Cards

When evaluating the Contract cards, the following rules apply:

• Only figures on office seat spaces are scored. Figures on Payment spaces should be removed before Final Scoring.
• Any office seat space with 2 figures counts as 2 individual seats.

Region. Each of these Contract cards show a particular Region. If you have majority in this Region at the end of the game, you gain 12 points. If you are in 2nd place for majority, you gain 6 points. (No points are scored for 2nd place in a 2-player game.)

Pattern (blue). Each of these Contract cards shows a particular combination, or pattern, of Regions. For example, 2 opposite or 3 adjacent Regions. If you occupy at least 1 office seat in each of the Regions marked in green, you gain the number of points as shown on the card. You may meet the pattern requirement, and thus score, more than once. However, you are only allowed to use each figure as part of one such pattern fulfillment. Example: Rudi has enough figures in the correct Regions to fulfill her Contract card 2 times: once with the "A" figures, and once with the "B" figures. Each of the 2 figures in the top left Region can be used to fulfill 1 instance of the pattern on the Contract card. A figure in another Region that does not meet the requirements to match the pattern on the card will not be included in the scoring.

Office seat (red). Each of these Contract cards shows particular office seats. The more often you occupy the seats indicated on the card, the more points you will receive. If you occupy an office seat of the indicated payment cost number with 2 of your figures, this is counted as if you occupy 2 separate office seats.

• 3, 4, and 5 Payment costs: For each separate figure on an office seat with a payment cost of 3 (or 4 or 5), you gain as many points as shown at the top of the Contract card. If you occupy 1 matching seat, you gain the first point value shown. For 2 seats, the second point value, etc.
• All of your own occupied office seats: For each office seat occupied by 1 of your figures, you gain as many points as shown at the top of the Contract card. In this case, the Payment cost of the seat is irrelevant. For each additional occupied seat beyond those shown, you gain 5 additional points.
• Pairs: For each pair of office seats with the same Payment cost number that your figures occupy, you gain 8 points. It does not matter whether the seats are in different Regions.
• Series: For each complete series of occupied office seats with Payment costs of 3, 4, and 5, you gain 15 points. It does not matter whether the seats are in different Regions. Example: Bettina occupies 2 office seats with a Payment cost of 3, 2 with a cost of 4, and 2 with a cost of 5. As this equals 2 complete sets, Bettina gains 2 x 15 = 30 points.

Example: Günter occupies 4 office seats with a Payment cost of 4 and 2 seats with a cost of 7. As this equals 3 pairs, Günter gains 3 x 8 = 24 points.

A Bit of History

Nijmegen (Netherlands). Henry VI was born in Nijmegen, in the autumn of 1165. He was the second son of eleven children, born to Frederick I ("Barbarossa") and Beatrice of Burgundy.

Aachen (Germany). At Barbarossa's request, Henry was chosen to be king by the German princes. On August 15, 1169, at the age of 3, he was crowned king in Aachen.

Aachen Cathedral. The history of the cathedral dates back to the 8th century, when Charlemagne began construction on the building. Over 30 kings, including Henry VI, were ordained at the cathedral, having ascended to the throne by brilliant, clever elections.

Strasbourg (France). In nearby Haguenau, Barbarossa turned the castle of his father ("Frederick the One-Eyed") into a Palatinate. The Staufer used this Palatinate as the seat of government, where the Reichstag (Parliament) was held. Their crown jewels were also kept here.

Augsburg (Germany). Henry VI made frequent stops to Augsburg in his travels, and his campaign against Italy was prepared here. However, "maneuvers" of a more peaceful nature were also planned here, such as the marriage arrangement between Henry VI and Constance of Sicily. On October 29, 1184, the betrothal contract was finalized and signed.

Milano (Italy). The marriage of Henry VI and Constance, Queen of Sicily, took place in Milano on January 27, 1186. This should have made Henry VI the heir to the throne of Sicily. However, after the death of the King of Sicily in 1189, the Norman barons instead elected Count Tancred of Lecce to the throne.

Palermo (Italy). The main goal of Henry VI's Italian campaign brought him to Palermo on November 20, 1194. On Christmas Day of that same year, Henry VI was crowned the King of Sicily in the Cathedral of Palermo.

Cathedral of Palermo. The present building dates back to the 12th century, just before Henry VI became the King of Sicily. It was built with Norman and Arab influences. Henry VI is buried here, having died after a long illness on September 28, 1197. His wife Constance and his son, Emperor Frederick II, also have their final resting place here.

Henry VI. Henry VI was constantly striving to expand the Staufer Empire outward, and to also strengthen his power within it. To achieve his goals, he did not shy away from dishonorable behavior, which brought him much criticism. He valued political solutions to his problems over military solutions. He was otherwise regarded as well-educated and cultured, and liked to devote much of his time to philosophy, poetry, and music.

Recommended reading: Hartmut Jericke, "Kaiser Heinrich VI. Der unbekannte Staufer," Gleichen 2008; Odilo Engels, "Die Staufer," Stuttgart 1989; Friedemann Bedürftig, "Die Staufer. Ein Lexikon," Darmstadt 2006; Norbert Ohler, "Reisen im Mittelalter," München 1986.

© 2014 Hans im Glück Verlags-GmbH. Rules editing: Gregory Abraham, Hanna & Alex Weiss.