Great Western Trail: Second Edition
136 questions players ask about Great Western Trail: Second Edition, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-30.
136 questions players ask about Great Western Trail: Second Edition, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-30.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
Later seats begin with more cards (4, 5, 6 or 7 by seat) as compensation, and each player discards down to 4 from their hand at the start of their own first turn. You never discard from the draw pile.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — your herder starts on a neutral building, so you skip Phase A and go straight to Phase B using that building's local actions, then do Phase C as normal and refill your hand.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — you start with one cowboy, one builder and one engineer, the ones printed on your board. They count for scoring, for hiring costs and for the sets you build.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Put them on the lowest-numbered outlaw spaces, so with three tiles they fill 1, 2 and 3. The numbers printed on the spaces decide the order, and the exchange-token space is number 1.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the starting objective needs a green outlaw. The tile's background colour identifies which outlaw counts, not the bandana.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — cards leave your hand only as part of an action, such as an auxiliary action or an exchange token. Otherwise you keep them until Phase C refills you up to your hand limit.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — passing over or stopping on a hand-symbol space costs the amount shown on your board for each hand, and hazards do not stop your movement. If you cannot pay in full you pay what you can and keep moving.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Only if its space shows a green or black hand icon. The icon, not the building, triggers the payment.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — those spaces are not on the trail at all (no dotted line), so nobody moves onto them or pays for passing them. The fee applies only to the higher-numbered outlaw spaces on a path.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
No — only the outlaws on the path you actually choose count toward the fee.
Yes — an opposing train blocks the turnout only if it is physically in the turnout space itself. You may step past a train on the switch space.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — you must move at least one space, but any number up to the maximum is fine. You can also decline the building action entirely.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
No — herders only move forward toward Kansas City.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
No — Phase B actions belong to the tile you are standing on. Once you move away, the earlier tile's local actions are gone, and you then perform Phase B at the tile where you stopped.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
You may take one single auxiliary action. The printed local actions can be used only on your own buildings or neutral ones.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — each stop lets you use its local actions in any order, including another move, and everything resolves in Phase B before you draw.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — copying with 6b counts as using that building's number and letter, so you cannot also use the same building's actions (or another building with the same number and letter) in the same turn, before or after. This matters most when the copied building has a move-your-herder action.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It copies the local actions of an adjacent building. You cannot land on the building you are already on, so a copied action that moves is limited, but copied actions that do not move still work.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
One station anywhere on the railroad track behind your engine, paying the normal upgrade cost and following the colour rules (a black disc cannot go on a white-cornered station).
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Move your engine forward up to 3 spaces, move it back any number of spaces (not past the start), then place a disc on the city matching the number of spaces you backed up. No transport cost applies and you may do the two parts in either order. Turnouts do not count when measuring the backward move.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
$2 for each pair of one orange and one green bandit — not per tile and not a flat $2. Two pairs pay $4 (and the certificates scale the same way).
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It pays $2 for each of your private buildings on a wood (tree) space, itself included, counted when you activate it, so later forest buildings raise the payout. The hand icon is a toll charged to others passing over it.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
Yes — rewards can be forfeited in whole or in part, but Dollars must be taken in full. So you may refuse the card and still collect the money.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
No — if you used 12a earlier this turn to reach 6b, you cannot copy its action again.
Yes — each purchase is its own action. Finish one, including its immediate placement bonus, before starting the next, and you may skip any of them.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes, if you own the building on that space, you can take the printed risk or extra actions in any order along with the building's actions. A hazard on the space blocks them.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
You need builders only for the difference between the new building's value and the old one's, and pay only that difference in dollars. The covered building is removed from the game and not returned to your supply, and you do not score its points.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
It means more builders required (the number in the upper-left), not more victory points. A tile needing the same number of builders is not an upgrade.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
Only by replacing one of your private buildings on the trail with a higher-valued one from above your board. You pay just the builder difference, the old tile leaves the game, and your workers stay on your board.
No — it places or upgrades exactly one building up to your current builder count, and spare builders do not buy a second one.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
You can upgrade it, but you cannot use the new building's local actions that turn. Use the old building's actions first, then replace it.
Yes — Kansas City is just the last trail step. Discards from 3b happen during Phase B, so you will not have refilled your hand before the delivery.
No — if you don't use the tile's actions you get only a single auxiliary action, even if your auxiliary action has been upgraded to a double.
No — moving into a station turnout ends that engine movement, and any leftover movement from that action is lost.
No — the limit applies only to the move-per-engineer action. Fixed moves are not capped by your engineer count, but the usual turnout and station rules apply.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
Yes, as long as it is at least one space; stopping early forfeits the rest. A forced backward move, such as from the fifth auxiliary action, must still be completed, and a doubled backward action moves two spaces.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — those workers are unavailable until the token moves on.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Only the row holding the job market token is filled; empty spaces in other rows stay empty. The token moves to the next row after the last space of its row is filled.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Not if you follow the rules: you can't hire from the token's row, and new tiles go only into that row. Hiring from that row would stall the timer and lengthen the game.
Yes — the only hiring restriction is the row the token is in. After it is gone, remaining workers can be hired normally.
Yes — a minus adds that amount to the row's listed price and a plus reduces it.
At most six: the printed starting one plus five slots on your worker section.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — a worker of any type can become a station master, but it must be a hired worker on the rightmost space of its row, so the workers printed on the player boards cannot be used.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
You forfeit the immediate action; the worker still goes onto your board.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
Yes — each cowboy you don't spend on buying can draw two cattle cards and add them face up to the market. You can spend all of them this way, or split them, and do so before or after buying.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — each cowboy adds cards once, so three cowboys can add up to three times.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — the 7/10/13 totals apply at setup and when the job market token passes a yellow arrow. Cowboy additions can push the market above them, and the refill simply adds nothing when it is already at or above the total.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
Only when the job market token moves along a yellow arrow. You then fill it up to the total for your player count.
Any card you can afford. The overlap is only for display.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
The price depends on how many cowboys you assign to each purchase, shown on the board. Splitting cowboys across purchases means each purchase uses its own cowboy count, so three cowboys on one shorthorn cost $6.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
Only at the end of your turn in Phase C. Discarding cards for an effect never triggers an immediate refill.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — the discard-your-whole-hand instruction applies only to a Kansas City delivery. Otherwise leftover cards stay and you just draw up to the limit.
No — objectives can be played only before Phase A or before/after a single action in Phase B. A card drawn in Phase C waits until your next turn, and you can't discard and redraw it.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — Dollars must be taken in full. Plain discard-for-coin actions refill only at the end of the turn; actions that draw and discard happen immediately.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
On a city whose value is no higher than your delivery value and where you don't already have a disc. Kansas City and New York are the exceptions and accept repeat discs.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — each disc on Kansas City subtracts its own penalty, so two discs cost 12 points. Only Kansas City and New York allow more than one disc.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Each certificate adds +1 to the herd's total breeding value, not to each cow, and that total sets both your payment and the furthest city you may deliver to.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Pay 1 for each red cross between your engine's nose and the delivery city, including a cross at the nose. If your engine is at or past the city, it costs nothing, and backing up after ringing the bell does not avoid the cost.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — only movement actions move it. A delivery just costs money if your engine hasn't reached the city.
Yes — it cannot be declined.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — you perform the bonus action once for each pair you complete, for example when a city sits between two already-delivered cities.
Your hand is discarded, not your deck; discarded cards go to your discard pile and return to circulation when you must draw from an empty draw pile.
Each temporary certificate you spend moves your certificate marker back one step and adds $1 to the herd payment. Permanent certificates from station master tiles aren't spent and give $1 each automatically.
They stay in their spaces and only emptied spaces are refilled. Tiles that can't be placed (hazards or outlaws with no space) go back to the box, and you choose which foresight tile to take or remove when there are two.
Yes — chains of building actions can leave you with fewer cards, and you can decline optional actions to avoid it.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
Yes — pay $5 to remove a hand-limit disc if you can. If you can't, remove a disc from a station of your choice and use it for the delivery.
Discs from black-cornered spaces can only be placed on a black-cornered city or station space; white-cornered discs can go anywhere. The small squares under the Phase A and C disc spaces are just reminders of the speed or hand size gained.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
You can't deliver to a city where you already have a disc (except Kansas City and New York), so pick a lower free city. If you can't pay the cost of clearing a disc space, choose another space.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
Yes — rewards can be forfeited, so you can take the dollar without removing a card (the dollar itself must be taken in full). The designer confirmed this.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
Yes — the move's reward is gained first and the station upgrade is resolved after the action, so you can use those coins. The designer confirmed this.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
No — rewards resolve before the upgrade, so the certificate advance is gained first and wasted.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
No — entering a turnout doesn't count, though moving out of a turnout you started on does. Ending in a station is allowed but doesn't count either.
Yes — a turnout counts as one space, so a required backward move can pass through one.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes, but only by performing it as a single auxiliary action (you can always use a single even when the double is unlocked). If you take the double, the required backward move of 2 spaces must be made in full.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It stops there, you may upgrade that station, and you then must move it backward at least one space to any free space. Afterward it moves forward again normally. Space 39 is the last; track art beyond it is decoration.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — the tile is available only at the moment you upgrade, even if you return to that station later.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
Only the station where your engine stops and you haven't upgraded before; the exception is building 9b, which reaches stations behind you.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — even if its station master tile is gone. Only trains in the station block it.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the choice is made only when your engine moves onto the turnout space. To upgrade later you must leave and re-enter.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — stopping doesn't require upgrading, and your train there blocks others.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — a worker is only needed for the optional station master tile, and that choice is lost if you skip it.
No — it only claims the tile for its owner. Others can still upgrade that station.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
Probably — no rule prevents it, but this rests on a single reply.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — each task counts for only one objective card. It may still count for station master tile scoring.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — play it on your turn and take the bonus; its tasks are only checked at the end of the game.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Discard it with a draw-and-discard effect or at Kansas City, or remove it from the game with the exile auxiliary action. Playing it commits you to scoring it; one you never play stays in your deck and at final scoring you choose whether to score it or remove it.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — objectives are checked at the end with the cards you then own, so trashing removes it. Discarding does not.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — once in play it stays there. Discarding means from your hand.
No — any three cattle of value 3 count.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Take one with a neutral building action, a station master tile that grants it, or by filling your sixth cowboy spot; you may pick a specific colour.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes, but each needs its own disc in New York, so you must deliver there twice.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
At game end, you check every card you own. Mid-game you may browse your discard pile but not your draw pile.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — it requires both discs removed; with one you get a single auxiliary action.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — it is one action at double size, so card exchange draws two then discards two.
Only a secondhand report of a designer comment and an offhand reply; no direct ruling.
Possibly. One poster relays that the designer said playing two tokens back to back (draw four, then discard four) is legal as written, but this is secondhand and the rulebook only says each token draws up to 2 and then immediately discards as many. Treat it as unconfirmed.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
Yes — draw first, then discard from your whole hand.
An exchange token, which you can use at any later point to draw up to two cards and then discard as many as you drew.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
No — it requires moving back, which is impossible from the start, and an unmet requirement means no reward.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — the remove-hazard action lets you choose any hazard in any section. Passing over a hazard never removes it.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Only a building action or cowboy bonus lets you collect a bounty; passing over outlaws only costs a fee. Any outlaw in the section may be chosen, and the first three give an exchange token or $1 or $2.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — at the end you may add them to your objective area, without their upper-left bonus, and they count toward the objective-scoring station tile.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
A complete row scores 8 VP: the fifth and sixth workers each add 4.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — assign completed goals to the scoring slots for the best total; not fulfilling the starting goal carries no penalty.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — station master tasks are independent of objective tasks, so the same tiles can count for both.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
No — only discs on station turnout spaces count.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Placing a disc on Philadelphia scores its 6 VP; no connecting arrow is needed.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
The -3 icon between those cities costs 3 points when you have discs in both.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes, but you can't choose another worker tile, so you take a bandit or hazard if one remains.
The rulebook text covers this directly, and forum answers agree.
The player holding the job market token at the end gets 2 victory points, per the rulebook's final scoring list.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
In a separate solo rules document, not the main rulebook.
He takes the branch with fewer tiles to Kansas City, counting tiles from the fork until the paths rejoin, not buildings or hazards. Per the solo rules he leans toward the lowest costs, avoiding hazards and non-neutral buildings, with ties broken as the solo rules say.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
Yes — he moves as the card says and acts without checking the spaces, which only matter for tolls and building.
He always hires if the market allows it. A specialization hire goes to his specialization type if possible; if his cowboy row is full, he hires the type he has second most of, then the third, and ties go to the cheapest.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
No — his actions cost nothing, and tolls to or from Sam go to or from the bank. He also pays nothing at hazards.
Players quote the solo rules and agree; the designer comment covers only the pace point.
Sam scores positive points for all his objective cards as though they were all completed; he needs no requirements. If his objective total looks very high, you are probably taking too long, which gives Sam more passes through his deck.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Sam takes no action there; an X under an option ends his actions that turn. The slash between actions is either/or per his specialization.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — the action happens only when Sam is specialised in the matching worker type, and workers are never discarded.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
He buys several cards while he has cowboys and money. The rules don't say how to split cowboys; the common choice is one to buy and one to add two cards to the market.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
He prefers a new building, highest VP he can afford, and upgrades only when he can't build new. With one builder and two level-one buildings placed, he upgrades one.
Sam stops at a station unless his movement lets him reach a station further along, in which case he continues to that one. Only one engine can occupy a space, so if your engine blocks a station he carries on past it. He also heads for stations to take station master tiles.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Mostly like a player, but no points for Dollars, station master tiles or cleared board spaces. The game ends as normal.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
Yes — like a human player, he starts with one of each worker type, counting the one printed on his board. The solo rules' back-page example shows this.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
On the horseman space at the start of the trail.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
You do. The solo rules say possible ambiguities are left up to the player and will not greatly affect the game, so pick whatever helps Sam most or hurts you most.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — for discard requirements such as Neutral Building F, any two orange Simmental cards qualify. For actions whose icon does not show orange, Simmental cards can't be used.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — Simmental cards do not count for objectives naming Shorthorn (4-value) or Hereford (5-value) cattle; the rules' Simmental page reportedly says so.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Only the highest Simmental card in your hand counts toward the herd's value, then every Simmental card in hand is upgraded one stage as you discard.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
9 cards for two players, 12 for three and 15 for four.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — Sam never buys Simmental cards, so he has none to upgrade.
The designer confirmed this on BoardGameGeek.
No — only the branchlet auxiliary action costs a cow and a coin; tile effects only need an accessible branchlet space. The auxiliary action needs a cow worth exactly 2.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
No — you must take the money and the objective card.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
No — only a higher-valued one.
Rests on one detailed forum answer; the other replies are bare agreements.
No. Building 9a places the disc following the usual rules, and Rails to the North changes those rules for northern cities, so you need a branch there.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Perform the Place a private building action as though you had exactly 2 builders, free of charge, ignoring your real builder count: either place a new building needing up to 2 builders, or replace one of yours with a higher-valued one needing up to 2 more builders.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
No — it is for the Second Edition base game only.
Only a single forum answer supports this; no official ruling.
Before moving his herder, on a free branchlet space of the next marked town square, in the ascending order on the card.