WaldMeister

About this board game

WaldMeister is a two-player board game with a playing time of about 30 minutes, in which players shape a forest of colorful pegs to pursue different scoring goals.

Each player begins with 27 pegs. These pieces come in three heights and three colors, with three pegs for every height-and-color combination—for example, short yellow-green pegs. One player aims to create clusters based on height, while the other seeks clusters based on color.

The game begins when the first player places one peg in a hole on the board. On every later turn, the active player selects any peg already on the board and moves it in a straight line as far as desired to a new empty hole. Pegs cannot be jumped. After moving, the player takes a peg from their reserve and places it in the hole that was just vacated.

• 27 pegs per player
• Three peg heights and three peg colors
• Straight-line movement without jumping
• Competing cluster goals based on height or color

Once all pegs have been placed, players count the pegs in each qualifying cluster they score. The height-focused player looks for short, medium, and tall clusters, while the color-focused player scores yellow-green, leaf-green, and dark-green clusters. The player with the higher total wins.

The rules suggest playing two games and switching goals between them, since recognizing height clusters is more difficult. Released in 2022, WaldMeister combines spatial movement, reserve management, and competing ways to read the final board.