great_western_trail.rst

Great Western Trail

Time:	75-150 min
# Players:	2-4
Style:	competitive deck-building track movement game (strategy)

Table of Contents:

• Important glossary
• Important general rules
• Gameplay
• Game End

Important glossary

place

a cardboard tile on the board (building, hazard tile or teepee)

empty spaces on the board are not considered places

worker

cowboy, craftsman or engineer

the same worker(s) cannot be used twice in the same turn

forest

a building is located in a forest if it covers any part of one of the forests drawn on the map

Important general rules

discard

every card you gain goes onto your discard (cow or objective)

you can look through your discard any time

objective

draw from the four public ones or from pile, put onto your discard and refill the public ones to four

any number of them can be played from your hand (before or after Phase A and B of your turn), then trigger their immediate action

played cards have to be fulfilled at the end of the game to get points, else cost points

cards not played can be played at the end of the game before scoring

resources are not shared between cards (if two cards require 1 teepee, you need 2 teepees to fulfill both)

resources are shared between objective cards and station master tile goals

locomotive movement

move 1-max spaces, max is given by the action

a space blocked by another player's locomotive cannot be accessed, it is not counted for movement (i.e. if another locomotive is in front of yours, moving one space will put yours in front of theirs)

if moving backward, you cannot move less spaces than indicated (requirement for a reward)

upgrade a train station

if your locomotive ends its movement in front of a train station (next to turnout spaces), you have the chance to upgrade it

upgrading: pay the cost, put your marker on it

if there is a station master tile, you can replace it with one of your workers (any kind, rightmost tile) to gain the station master tile

you cannot upgrade a station that already has your marker (thus you cannot take the station master tile later)

after arriving at and optionally upgrading the last train station (space 39), you have to move your locomotive 1-x spaces backwards (x is any space of your choice, even another train station that you may upgrade immediately), also gain 3 dollars

teepee trade

if you gain a teepee you either gain or pay money as indicated on the map

hands

if there is a black and/or green hand on the place you move to, pay the fee to the player who owns the building or the bank (hazard tile or teepee)

if you cannot pay (everything), pay as much as you can and continue normally

actions

many actions have a requirement (often marked with a red arrow, e.g. to drop a card) and a reward (often marked with a green arrow)

the requirement needs to be fulfilled, a reward can be skipped or partly skipped unless it is money

a + combines rewards

simple help action

do an action once, not twice! (if you have removed the corresponding marker on the left of your player board)

can be done on any place instead of local actions

double help action

do an action once or twice (if you have removed the corresponding marker(s) on the left of your player board)

hire

you must not hire workers from the row of the current job market token

costs as much as the row + modifier on the action

fill up your player space from left to right, choose to activate or ignore actions (even if these actions were activated before by a worker that has been removed)

you have one worker by default (printed)

cattle market

you can use your cowboys to buy cattle or add 2 cows to the market

you can only buy the cattle in the market (face-up cards)

cows are put on your discard pile

remove hazard tile

put a hazard tile from the map next to your player board and pay the price (if any is indicated)

build

place on an empty space or upgrade one of your buildings to a higher-level one (old one is removed from the game)

you pay costs for each craftsman required and you can only build if you have enough craftsman

an upgrade requires less craftsman (and thereby money), i.e. the difference in required craftsman (if one building requires 1 and you upgrade to one that requires 3, you only need 2 craftsman)

buildings are identical for all players

job market token

moved downward one row once a worker is placed onto it

blocks hiring in current row

if moved along yellow arrow: cattel market refills to 7/10/13 cards (2/3/4) players

if moved along red arrow: ends the game once moved out of job market (player who moves it out gets it)

Gameplay

first round

place your workers on any neutral building along the track and continue with Phase B

turns (you must do all phases)

1. Phase A

   move your cattleman

2. Phase B

   either use the local action of the building you arrived at (if neutral or your own)

   or use a simple help action (anywhere except Kansas City)

   or do all actions in Kansas City

3. Phase C

   draw cards up to your hand limit (indicated on your player board)

cattleman movement (Phase A)

move 1-max steps, max is indicated on your board

moving to the next place on the board (building, hazard tile or teepee) takes 1 step (empty spaces do not count as steps)

move along the track to Kansas City (not backwards)

movement may cost you (see hands)

freely choose where to move on junctions

movement ends in Kansas City

multiple players can be in the same place

local actions

perform multiple non-exclusive actions in any order

you do not have to perform all actions

if an action is drawn next to the building tile on the gameboard, it becomes part of the local actions (risk actions)

Kansas City

1. choose one of the 1, 2 and then 3 tiles in the forecasts and put them in the corresponding place

   teepee: lowest-value teepee space (remove from game if it can't be placed)

   hazard tile: lowest-value hazard space (remove from game if it can't be placed)

   worker: into the row of the current job market token from left (number players) to right (token moves once replaced with a worker)

2. get money for your cattle, discard hand

   x = sum(set(cow values in hand)), i.e. sum of values for each differing cow in your hand

   x = x + temporary and permanent certificates

   reduce the temporary certificate counter by the used amount

   get x money

3. transport the cattle to a town, pay the transport costs

   deliver to a town in a distance smaller or equal to x that does not have your marker on it (Kansas City and San Francisco can have multiple of your markers)

   pay 1 money for each cross ahead of your locomotive up to the town position

   put a marker from your player board onto the town (white bordered ones on any town, black bordered ones only on black bordered towns only)

   pay costs to remove the marker from your player board, if applicable

   do the town action, if applicable

4. put your cattleman on the beginning of the track

5. refill the 1, 2 and 3 tile forecasts

Game End

game end

once the job market token is moved out of the job market (player who moves it out gets it), this was their last turn

all other players have one final turn

score

5 money is worth 1 point, all else is indicated

station master tile resources are independent from objective card goal resources (if an objective cards needs two teepees and a station master tile gives points for two teepees, both count)

win

player(s) with the most points win(s)