In Great Western Trail, you are a rancher in 19th century America herding your cattle from Texas to Kansas City. From there you’ll send them by train to the world. Your goal is to have the most valuable and diverse cattle by the end of your many runs to Kansas City. If you successfully navigate the perilous Great Western Trail, you’ll become the greatest rancher in the West!
What is Great Western Trail: Second Edition?
This board game classic by Alexander Pfister was first released in 2016 and is currently ranked 12th on BoardGameGeek.
The grim cover art initially put me off from buying it, but I finally purchased this first version in January of 2021. Shortly after, I heard a Second Edition version was coming out, with updated graphics and a solo mode included, so I never played the old version. I pre-ordered the Second Edition and finally received it a few months ago. This week was the first time I navigated the Great Western Trail!
Great Western Trail Gameplay
1-4 players start with the same herd of 14 cattle as their deck. You’ll traverse the Great Western Trail from Texas to Kansas City, following well-worn pathways. Along the way, you may buy new cattle to upgrade your herd, hire workers, build useful outposts, and improve your railroad line.
Setup
The instruction booklet is easy to follow in terms of setup. Choose your color and don your matching cowboy hat. Place your train in Kansas City; you’ll be meeting up with it soon.
You all start here on the blue horse icon, the beginning of the trail! You can choose where on the board to begin on your first turn, but for all future runs, you’ll start here.
Player Board
Grab your player board and starting cattle cards in your color. Up north in Kansas City, you’ll have opportunities to remove your player discs off your board to uncover improvements! Everyone starts with a hand limit of 4, but the more powerful upgrades allow you to increase your hand size. Everyone also starts with a movement limit of 3-4 determined by the number of players, but you may also uncover more movement.
Your initial cattle deck starts with the same 14 cows with zero victory points, indicated by stars in your color on the bottom of the cards. Draw the top 4 cards (up to 6 if you’ve upgraded your hand size) and herd those cattle along the trail! As you earn money, you’ll be able to add to your cattle herd with more valuable cows, both in terms of breeding values and end-game victory points. You’ll want a diverse herd. You can only sell unique cows in Kansas City, so along the trail, you’ll want to take actions to diversify and upgrade your cattle.
Traverse the Great Western Trail
Beware, there are many pitfalls along the trail! You may encounter drought, floods or rockslides! Each Hazard will take a few bucks to get you out safely. And woe to the rancher that goes through this canyon of Outlaws below! Each one would steal more money from you! Luckily, there are ways in the game to remove Hazards for end-game victory points and turn in Outlaws for cash.
You’ll want to rest your weary bones in the many neutral outposts along the trail.
Hire Workers
You may hire workers to help you achieve your goals faster! Cowboys get you better cattle prices, Builders let you build your useful outposts along the trail, and Engineers help further your train network.
Build Outposts
You can build anywhere on the board, but here I’m checking out this nice area behind these mountains for an upgraded building location. But are the drought hazards worth it? I’ll have to find a way to clear them first…
There are twelve building tiles in the game. Below is the A-side; flip them over for 12 new buildings with the B side. All players must be playing with the same set of buildings, so if you randomize them, make sure everyone is playing each card on the same a/b side. You’ll notice the most expensive card takes 12 workers to place, worth 20 victory points. With only six builders you can hire, you’ll have to upgrade your buildings to reach this desirable building.
Reaching Kansas City
After much hard work on the Great Western Trail, you’ll finally reach Kansas City! You’ll take five actions here, including adding new Hazard/Outlaws/Workers to the board, selling your herd and gaining money, and paying any train station fees. Then it’s back to Texas to start all over again!
You’ll want your train to progress further along this train track and keep up with you as you sell your cows to more distant locations. If your train lags behind, you’ll have fees to pay. So keep that train a-chugging! You’ll also be able to stop at Train Stations along the way to earn end-game victory points and grab upgrade tiles such as juicy permanent Certificates! What are certificates? These are the purple ribbons you either gain permanently here or earn temporarily for use when you need them. They increase the value of your cattle score!
2nd Edition: Simmental Variant
There is a new type of cow in town with this new edition – the Simmental. You can purchase one of these calves for $8 or add another Cowboy to your team to snatch one up for just $5!
Each time you deliver your cows to Kansas City, your calf will grow and increase its value! I love having multiple Simmentals in my deck.
“Lonely Are the Brave” – Solo variant
With this solo variant included in the second edition, you’ll be competing with Sam, a rival rancher. Here’s Sam’s player board, and he has his own cards. He’ll compete with you for workers, cows, buildings and objectives. The type of worker that Sam has the most of determines his specialization. As you can expect, Cowboys will allow Sam to purchase many valuable cows. Builders will have him peppering the trail with his outposts. Finally, Engineers will let him go fast with his train network.
You can choose the Difficulty of the Solo mode. I’ve played against Sam on all Specialties – Cowboy, Builder, and Engineer. I won him first when he was a Cowboy, but wow, he cultivated a lucrative cattle herd!
Great Western Trail: Second Edition (2021)