The Barons of Fyn (1994)

BoneGames (http://www.bonegames.com) produces a number of do-it-yourself free games. You download a PDF containing rules and components, and print out what is required for play.

The Barons of Fyn is a card based strategy game in which competing players each try to become the most mighty Baron of Fyn.

The Great King Timothy has decided he will leave his kingdom, Fyn, and fight in the great crusades. While he is gone, he trusts the nobility of the land will behave themselves, as good nobles should. Little did King Timothy realize that his nobles were planning to use his leaving as a chance to conquer one another. Knowing the King could come back at any time, the Barons of Fyn each fought to get as much power as possible, so that when the King did return, he would be forced to ally himself with the most powerful Baron. As a result, the most powerful Baron would hold influence over the King, which could be used to punish the other Barons.

The Barons of Fyn starts with King Timothy leaving Fyn, and each player becoming one of the Barons who will fight it out for ultimate power. By expanding his frontiers, each Baron will build new villages, towns, and cities, which are loyal only to him. These villages, towns, and cities, then allow each Baron to build ever bigger armies with which the Baron can go conquering. The standard game is played until King Timothy returns to Fyn, at which point, the player with the most victory points is declared the winner.

Do you have what it takes to become the most mighty Baron of Fyn?

The game features a dynamic board that is generated as the players lay land cards; however, instead of a Kings-and-Things style board, this one combines some features of Illuminati, in the sense that each player's layout is independent of the others', except that when a group of cards is captured, the entire group is slid to your layout for hook-up, possibly discarding cards that can't fit (that would cause an overlap).