Components
Game Set Up
Decide which side of the game board you w ant to
play . Put the 2 pieces of t he game board toget her for
that side and place it in t he middle of your playing
area.
Place the hiker on Fr iedberg .
Sor t the cards using t he colored back s. Only use the
cards that match t he side of the game board you
have chosen. Put the remaining cards back into the
box.
Shufe the cards t horoughly and deal each player a
hand of 4 cards. Each player may look at their hand
but should keep it secret from the other player s.
Place the remaining cards as a f ace down dr aw deck
next t o the game board.
Goal of the Game
In this game you will be hiking t hrough the cities
and communities of the Wetter au. The catch: Players
guide a single hiker along the paths tr ying to direct
the hiker to locations t hat match the cards t hey
have in their hand.
If the hiker reaches a location that you have 1 or
more of in your hand of cards, you may place them
f ace up in front of you. Whoever has played the mos t
cards at the end of t he game wins.
Game Play
The youngest player s t ar ts the game, t hen play pro-
gresses clockwise. On your turn, you must per for m
at least 1 of the 2 f ollowing actions. Y ou may also
per f orm bot h actions in the order listed :
1. Move the Hiker
2. Play Location Cards
Move the Hiker
Move the hiker fur t her along the pat h 1 location in
the direction of your choice.
If you have 2 (or even 3) cards of the same location
in your hand, you may move the hiker 2 (or even 3)
spaces. However , you may only do so if you reach the
respective location.
Play Location Cards
If the hiker is on a location whose card(s) you have
in your hand, place the card(s) in a f ace up st ac k in
front of you.
Then, draw as many new cards from the dr aw deck
as you have played so that you again hav e 4 cards in
your hand.
In summar y: you may play cards in front of you for
the location where t he hiker is already st anding.
In this case t he hiker does not move and the game
continues with t he next player . If you cannot play
any cards in the cur rent location, you must move the
hiker . Then you may play cards for the ne wly reached
location if you can.
Game End
When a player draws t he last card from t he draw
deck, the end of t he game is tr iggered.
From now on no new cards can be drawn. The game
continues until 1 player plays his last card(s) in
front of them. Then all ot her players must discard
their unplayed cards into the box. They do not
count.
Players now count the number of location cards t hey
have pla yed. The player with t he most cards in t heir
st ac k wins.
If more than one player has collected the mos t loca-
tion cards, the y share the victor y.
Y ou may ne ver move the hiker back along the path
towards t he location he last came from. As a re-
minder , alway s place the hiker in a location so that
his back is f acing t he last location he has come
from on the pat h.
Special Case: If may happen that players keep
moving the hiker in a circle without any player
being able to play cards. In this case, if no player
wants to move t he hiker out of this circle, the game
ends immediately.
1 double-sided game board (in 2 pieces) 7 8 cards, 39 cards for each side of the game board.
The color of the card backs matches the cor responding side of
the game board to use.
F riedber g
Der Adolfsturm is t Wahrzei-
chen der Stadt Friedberg und
einer der größten Bergfriede.
Die Burganlage ist die größte
zusammenhängende Anlage in
Deutschland.
1 hiker
Each card is assigned
to a location. The
name of this location
is on the t op of the
cards. There are 3
cards for each loca-
tion.
Bad N auheim
Das Wahrzeichen der Gesund-
heitsstadt. Es is t das größte
geschlossene Jugendstilensem-
ble Europas und der Bezug zum
Wasser als Gesundheit spenden-
de Kraf t ist hier allgegenwär tig.
A hiking game acr oss the W etterau for 2-4 pla yers f or ages 6 years and up - by R einer Knizia
Meine
Goldene
Wetterau
The ancient Romans knew
and appreciated the “Golden
W ett erau” region. The or igin
of its name is made clear when
looking at the glowing, gold-
en-yellow grain elds there.
The W ett erau is an e xtremely
fer tile region geographically
bounded in the eas t by t he
V ogelsberg, in the west b y the
T aunus r ange, in the nor t h by t he city of Giessen, and
in the sout h by Frankfur t am Main. Numerous r ivers
and streams t hat or iginate in the Vogelsberg and the
T aunus r ange ow through the oodplain landscape.
Whet her it was t he r iver W etter t hat gave the W etter-
au its name or whet her the name may have come from
the designation “weit Au” (wide oodplain) is open
to discussion.
Due to an e xceptionally mild climate, par ticularly
fer tile soils, and a widespread network of w ater s,
people were already settling in this region thousands
of years ago. The Wetter au is one of the oldes t cultur-
al landscapes in Germany and was rs t documented
in the Code x Aureus of Lorsch in 779. Even the Limes
(Roman border for tications) s tretched through
the Wetter au landscape and are still visible today in
par tial preser v ation.
The W ett erau is a tr ue treasure trov e for e xplorers:
billowing cornelds, blossoming cherr y trees, green
meadows, dark fores ts, pas tures and r ivers, quar r ies
with unusual s tones, snow covered hills, grapes and
str awberr ies, kingshers and cr anes, and salty hot
spr ings from the dept hs of the ear t h.
Here there is somet hing for ever yone; and above all,
traces of our ances tor s are evident ever ywhere.
Celts, Romans, and the Middle Ages hav e all lef t
behind plenty of evidence to e xplore. Follow me into
one of the oldes t cultur al landscapes in Europe – the
W ett erau!
From the spect acular Celtic nds on the Glauberg,
through t he numerous castles and palaces, to t he e x-
citing st or ies surrounding Cas tle Münzenberg - there
is much to discover .
As an ex ample, it would cer t ainly give one pleasure to
ramble down his tor ical pat hs and recreate stor ies of
the pas t in the town of Büdingen, strongly inuenced
by the Middle Ages.
The W ett erau game presents all players, big and
small, old and young, with t he challenge of matching
location cards to the appropr iate places. In addition
to lear ning about our region, children may also learn
about obser ving the r ules, playing well toget her , and
also how to win, as well as how to lose.
Discover the Golden Wetterau – because t he good
things are so close. Go on your own tr ip of discover y
with t he Wetterau game.
I cordially invite you.
Kr eisbeig eor dne t e des W e tt er aukr ei ses
Credits
Designer: Reiner Knizia
Graphic Design: Jens Wiese | Box design based on a concept by Hans-Georg Schneider
Realization: Sebastian Hein | Exper tise, Image Selection and T exts: Cornelia Dörr (TourismusRegion Wetterau)
English T ranslation: Ralph H. Anderson
© 201 7 Dr . Reiner Knizia, © 201 7 Pegasus Spiele GmbH, Am Straßbach 3, 6 1 1 69 Fr iedberg, Germany.
All r ights reser ved.
Reproduction or publication of the rules, components, or illustr ations and graphic design is only permitt ed with pr ior permission
of Pegasus Spiele.
Pegasus Games is proud to suppor t the implement ation of this game f or T our ismusRegion W etter au,
above all Cornelia Dörr .
Our special thank s go to all hobby and professional phot ographers of t he Wetterau, who provided the
excellent photographic mat er ials for t his game.