皇帝なき帝国 (Empire Without Emperor) (2012)

User summary:
皇帝なき帝国 (Koutei Naki Teikoku) is themed on the Interregnum in the Holy Roman Empire. But the game centred around the placement of numbered tiles and their effect. The main focus is on control using the Knight placement from Chess.

An area-control game themed on middle-ages Germany, where your goal is to gain control of Cities and Nobles. Players control "Knights" which have "Military points". Majority of Military points are required to control Cities.

On the other hand, you need the majority of number of Knights (regardless of Military points) to control Nobles. You must spend one turn to "prepare" the Knights, or they would be treated as "unprepared", or woth 0 Military points. But since they are initially face-down tiles, you can't be sure which of your Knights are the stronger ones.

The game was originally published in 2012 and a new edition with updated artwork was released in 2017, but gameplay remains the same.

Publisher summary:
神聖ローマ帝国、大空位時代を舞台に都市の支配権を争う。騎士タイルをボード上で配置し、連なることで勢力も合わさるのでより適した配置ができれば勝利につながるでしょう。

中世ドイツを舞台に、都市や貴族を支配することを目指す陣取りゲームです。
プレイヤーの手下の騎士は「武力ポイント」を持ちます。それは都市を支配するのに必要です。
貴族を手下にするには騎士タイルの枚数で相手を上回っている必要があります。
騎士タイルはめくり、いったん控えの間カード上に移されます。この手順から運の要素があるのです。