Great Western Trail, Second Edition is a Euro-style strategy game with an American Western theme. Travel west, herd cattle to market, hire workers, build buildings and send your train east!
On your turn, move your Rancher to a location on the game board. Then resolve the location actions and draw your hand of cattle back up to its limit.
Board Movement & Card Management
Sounds simple enough but what you choose to do with your turn can be oh-so-complicated...
Do you purchase cattle from the Cattle Market?
Or move your train down the track?
What about hiring engineers and building locations from your available location tiles?
Your hand and auxiliary actions are managed on your personal player mat.
Each time you arrive in Kansas City, you'll load up your cattle and send them to a city by train.
Go around the board until the job market token is pushed off the board (about a dozen rounds), ending the game. Then total up victory points to reveal the winner.
*Awesome Rancher meeples*Solo version*Nicely printed game elements from the player mats to the location tiles *Immersive theme experience*Many paths to success
Cons
*A lot of iconography and rules, requiring frequent reference of game manual*Takes up more space than a standard card table*Game time is several hours, could be five or more; might not wrap up in one evening