Great Western Trail: Second Edition Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• COMPONENTS
  • 92 cattle cards
  • Simmental variant components:
  • Solo mode components
• GAME BOARD SETUP
• OBJECT OF THE GAME
  • Deck Building
• GAMEPLAY
• PHASE A: Move your herder to another location along the trail
• PHASE B: Use the action(s) of your reached location
  • 1
    • Use the local action(s)
    • Use one single auxiliary action
  • 2
  • 3
    • The 5 Kansas City subphases are:
    • 1., 2., 3. Foresights
      • Outlaw tile
      • Hazard tile
      • Worker Tiles
    • 4. Income
    • 5. Delivery
• PHASE C: Draw up to your hand limit
• ACTIONS
  • The Actions
    • Hire one worker
      • Buy cattle from the cattle market
    • Move your engine forward
      • Upgrading train stations
    • Gain one objective card
    • Place one of your private buildings
    • Perform one single or one double auxiliary action
    • Collect bounty for outlaws
    • Gain an exchange token
    • Remove a hazard
    • Move your herder forward
• END OF THE GAME
  • The final scoring
    • The individual tasks of the station master tiles
• VARIANT: Simmental
• General notes and special cases

COMPONENTS

• 1 game board

• 4 player boards, 1 per player

• 4 player count tiles, 1 per player, double sided

• 54 worker tiles, 18 each of: cowboy, builder, engineer

• 18 hazard tiles, 6 each of: flood, drought, rockfall

• 22 outlaw tiles, 11 each of: green outlaw, orange outlaw

• 3 bags:

  Note: The backs of the tiles above are marked with either 1, 2 or 3. This is to ensure that the tiles enter the game in a reasonably balanced way.

• 4 herders, 1 per player

• 4 hats, 1 per player

• 4 engines, 1 per player

• 56 player discs, 14 per player

• 4 certificate markers, 1 per player

• 56 coins, 36 silver coins with a value of 1 Dollar, 20 gold coins with a value of 5 Dollars

• 1 job market token

• 12 exchange tokens

92 cattle cards

• 56 player cattle cards

  14 per player:

  • 5 Criollo
  • 3 Santa Gertrudis
  • 3 Pineywoods
  • 3 Galloway

• 36 market cattle cards

  • 7 Black Angus
  • 7 Longhorn
  • 7 Corriente
  • 9 Shorthorn
  • 6 Hereford

Simmental variant components:

• 24 Simmental cattle cards

  • 8 Simmental Calf
  • 8 Simmental Heifer
  • 8 Simmental Cow

• 1 Simmental market tile

• 24 objective cards

• 4 starting objective cards

• 9 station master tiles

• 7 neutral building tiles

  Each neutral building tile is marked with a capital letter (A to G).

• 48 private building tiles, 12 per player, double sided

  Each private building tile is marked with a number (1 to 12) and a lowercase letter (a or b), dep

• 1 scoring pad

Solo mode components

• 1 specialization tile
• 15 Sam’s cards
• 1 Sam’s board

GAME BOARD SETUP

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table.

2. Shuffle the 9 station master tiles and place one at random face up onto each of the 5 station master spaces. Return the remaining 4 tiles to the box.

3. Take the 7 neutral building tiles and place one face up onto each of the 7 neutral spaces on the game board:

   • If this is your first game, place each tile onto the space marked with its matching letter (A to G).
   • In subsequent games, shuffle the tiles and distribute them at random.

4. Place the job market token onto the top dashed round space in the job market.

5. Take the 54 worker tiles, the 22 outlaw tiles and the 18 hazard tiles and turn them face down. Sort them by the numbers on their back (1, 2 and 3) and put them into their corresponding bags.

   Place the bags next to the game board (close to Kansas City).

   These bags are called the Kansas City supply.

6. From the Kansas City supply, draw 7 tiles with a 1 on their back and place them one after the other onto the game board.

   Where a tile is placed depends on its type:

   • If it is an outlaw tile (green or orange), place it in the outlaw section onto the empty space with the lowest number (1 to 9).
   • If it is a hazard tile, place it in its corresponding hazard section (flood, drought or rockfall) onto the empty space with the lowest number (1 to 4).

   If there is no empty space left, return it to the bag and draw a new tile.

7. Start drawing tiles with a 2 on their back (which include only worker tiles). Put these worker tiles one after the other in the job market as follows:

   Start in the top row and place the first drawn tile onto the space directly beneath the player count sign of your actual player count.

   Place the next tile onto the space to the right of that tile and continue like this rightwards.

   After you have placed a tile onto the rightmost space of the top row, continue along the second row, where you place the next tile yet again onto the space in line with your player count sign.

   Then continue like this rightwards until you place a tile onto the space to the left of the job market token. This is the last tile. So depending on your player count, there are now 3, 5 or 7 worker tiles in the job market.

8. Now fill the 6 foresight spaces in Kansas City with tiles from the Kansas City supply:

   • Draw 2 tiles with a 1 on their back and place them face up onto the two foresight spaces marked 1.
   • Draw 2 tiles with a 2 on their back and place them face up onto the two foresight spaces marked 2.
   • Draw 2 tiles with a 3 on their back and place them face up onto the two foresight spaces marked 3.

9. Shuffle the 36 market cattle cards and place them as a face-down market cattle stack beneath the lower left of the game board.

   Depending on your player count, draw a number of cattle cards from this stack:

   • In a 2-player game: Draw 7 cards.
   • In a 3-player game: Draw 10 cards.
   • In a 4-player game: Draw 13 cards.

   Sort the drawn cards by color and place them face up beneath the game board in the cattle market, forming an overlapping row in which the left side of each card is visible. For clarity, the cards of this row should be arranged in the following order from left to right: yellow, red, blue, brown, purple (not all colors may be present though).

   Note: The (orange) Simmental cattle cards are part of a variant. See VARIANT: Simmental for the rules and how to add them during the setup. If you prefer to play without the Simmental cards return the 24 orange cattle cards to the box.

10. Shuffle the 24 objective cards and place them as a face-down stack to the right of the game board. Then reveal 4 cards from this stack and display them face up in a column below the stack.

    This display is called the general objective display.

11. Place the coins and exchange tokens within reach of all players as a general supply. This supply is called the bank.

12. Each player chooses a player color.

    You receive the player board of that color (identifiable by the 14 round colored spaces) and place it in front of you.

    If you are playing with 2 or 3 players, you also receive the player count tile of your color.

    Turn it to the side of the appropriate player count and use it to cover up Phase A of your player board.

13. You receive the 12 private building tiles of your color.

    These building tiles are double sided and each is marked with a number (between 1 and 12) and with the lowercase letter ‘a’ on one side and the lowercase letter ‘b’ on the other.

    • In your first couple of games, turn your private building tiles to the a-side and displays them in an ascending order of required builders above your player board.
    • If you know the game a little better, you may try the following: Choose a player who determines the side of each of the building tiles at random (for example by tossing them in the air) and then displays them in ascending order of required builders above the player board. Afterwards all other players copy the display by turning their tiles to the same sides.

    Thus, for the remainder of the game, the side of each building tile is identical for all players. No one may deliberately flip a building tile to its other side.

14. You receive the following items of your color:

    • 14 discs - which you place onto your player board to cover up each of the colored disc spaces. (Only the 2 gray spaces in the upper left remain empty.)
    • 1 engine - which you place onto the starting space (the red building) of the railroad track on the game board.
    • 1 certificate marker - which you place onto the top space of your certificate track (next to the 0).
    • 1 herder - which you place next to your player board for now.

15. Then you receive the 14 player cattle cards that are marked with a star of your color.

    These 14 cards make up your herd deck.

    Shuffle your herd deck and place it as your face-down personal draw stack to the left of your player board.

16. Shuffle the 4 starting objective cards and deal each player one random card, which you place face up below your player board. This is the first card of your personal objective area.

    Return any remaining starting objective cards to the box.

17. Finally, determine a starting player, the other players will follow in clockwise order. Receive your starting capital and 1 exchange token from the bank and draw cards from your personal draw stack to add them to your hand.

    • 1st player: 6 dollars, 4 cards and 1 exchange token
    • 2nd player: 7 dollars, 5 cards and 1 exchange token
    • 3rd player: 8 dollars, 6 cards and 1 exchange token
    • 4th player: 9 dollars, 7 cards and 1 exchange token

You are now ready to start the game.

Important: At the beginning of your very first turn of the game, discard cards from your hand until you have only 4 remaining. Discarded cards go to your personal discard pile.

Then place your herder onto any neutral building tile and continue directly with phase B. You may start on the same building tile as other players.

OBJECT OF THE GAME

On your turn, you move your herder along a trail that winds and forks from the lower right corner of the game board to Kansas City in the upper left. Along your path, you perform actions that provide you with various ways to earn victory points. For example: Placing private building tiles, buying cattle from the cattle market, upgrading train stations and removing hazards.

Each time your herder reaches Kansas City, you must send cattle off by train to another city, which may also be worth victory points. Afterwards, your herder continues its movement again in the lower right corner of the game board. Throughout the game, your herder will reach Kansas City about 5 to 7 times.

All victory points are awarded at the end of the game. Then, you add up the victory point symbols on the various components in front of you as well as the ones marked with your color on the game board. The player with the most victory points wins the game.

Deck Building

What is your herd deck?

Your herd deck represents your herd, which you lead along the trail. Each cattle card of that herd represents one animal of a specific cattle type, clearly denoted by the card’s color and breeding value.

Each player starts with an identical herd deck of rather low breeding values.

However, during the game, you can improve your deck by adding market cattle cards with higher breeding values as well as objective cards to it.

Your herd deck is made up of the following parts:

• Your face-down personal draw stack to the left of your player board.
• Your hand cards that you draw from that draw stack according to your hand limit (you start with a hand limit of 4 cards).
• Your face-up personal discard pile, onto which you place any cards that you discard from your hand as well as any cards you acquire during the game.

Important: When you must draw a card from your personal draw stack but have no cards left in that stack, then (and only then) pick up your personal discard pile, shuffle it thoroughly and place it as your new face-down personal draw stack to the left of your player board. Then continue to draw cards from it as usual.

What is the purpose of the cattle cards?

On the locations of the trail, there are several actions that require specific cattle cards to be discarded from your hand in order to gain rewards.

Also, each time you reach Kansas City, you want to have many different types of cattle with high breeding values in your hand: The more varied and valuable they are, the more money and victory points are in store for you.

GAMEPLAY

Beginning with the starting player (the one with a starting capital of only 6 Dollars), players consecutively take turns in a clockwise order. On your turn, you must carry out all of the following phases in this order:

PHASE A Move your herder to another location along the trail

PHASE B Use the action(s) of your reached location

PHASE C Draw up to your hand limit

Then it is the next player’s turn.

Note: The 3 boxes at the top of each player board give an overview of the 3 phases.

PHASE A: Move your herder to another location along the trail

What is considered a location?

The main location of the trail is Kansas City. Furthermore, any tile that is placed on a space of the trail is considered a location (building tiles, hazard tiles and outlaw tiles).

Spaces without any tile are considered an unimpeded part of the trail and are NOT locations!

In this phase, you must move your herder from its current location along the trail to another location.

For this, bear the following rules in mind:

• The movement of your herder is measured in steps. Each location along your path takes 1 step (remember, empty spaces along the trail are not considered locations).
• You must always move your herder forward along the intended direction of the trail (as indicated by the arrows).
• If the trail forks, choose one of the available paths to continue along.
• The location on which your herder ends its movement (either because you want it to or because your step limit is exhausted) is the location you use in phase B.
• You are not allowed to pass over Kansas City. So when your herder reaches Kansas City, it must end its movement there.
• The herders of the other players do not interfere in any way with your own herder. Several herders can be on the same location.
• You must move your herder at least 1 step and are not allowed to move it more steps than the current step limit your player board indicates. (Depending on your player count, you start with a step limit of 3 or 4, which later in the game can be increased.)

Attention: Several locations show a green or black hand (or both). If your herder moves to or passes over such a location, you must immediately pay a fee:

1. If it is a hazard or outlaw tile, you must pay the fee to the bank.
2. If it is a private building tile of another player, you must pay the fee to that player.

The fee depends on the player count and the color of the hand(s):

In a 2-player game:

• each green hand costs 2 Dollars
• each black hand costs 2 Dollars

In a 3-player game:

• each green hand costs 2 Dollars
• each black hand costs 1 Dollar

In a 4-player game:

• each green hand costs 1 Dollar
• each black hand costs 2 Dollars

Important: If you cannot pay for some or all of the hands along your path, you are still allowed to move. This means that if your herder moves to or passes over a location whose fee you cannot pay, pay as much as you can and continue as usual.

You never have to pay fees retroactively, even if you receive money while still at a location whose fee you could not pay before.

This only applies to fees levied by hands. All other costs and requirements in the game must always be paid/met in full.

PHASE B: Use the action(s) of your reached location

After moving your herder, use the location on which it ended its movement. However, your options on the location differ depending on whether it is:

1. A neutral building tile or a private building tile of your own color
2. A private building tile of another player, a hazard tile or an outlaw tile
3. Kansas City

1

On a neutral building tile or a private building tile of your own color, you have two options:

EITHER use the local action(s) of that tile OR use one single auxiliary action

Use the local action(s)

Most building tiles show two different local actions on their bottom half. These actions are separated from one another by full-length dividers. (Only a few building tiles show just one or more than two local actions.)

• You may now perform each of that tile’s local actions once.
• You may perform these local actions in any order.
• You do not have to perform all of the available local actions. But if an action shows a cost or requirement, you have to pay/meet it completely in order to gain that action’s reward.
• A few tiles show two actions (separated by a white slash) within the same local action. You are only allowed to perform one of those actions.
• Some spaces of the trail have risk actions attached. If a building tile is placed on such a space, the risk action becomes part of that tile’s local actions and thus can be performed by its owner each time that player reaches the location.

Use one single auxiliary action

If you do not perform any of the local actions of the reached tile, then and only then may you perform one single auxiliary action instead.

Your auxiliary actions can be found on the left side of your player board in the auxiliary action section.

At the beginning of the game, only 2 of them are available. Each of the other auxiliary actions becomes available after you have cleared at least one of its two disc spaces (again, you will learn soon enough how to do that).

2

On a building tile of another player, a hazard tile or an outlaw tile, you have only one option:

Perform one single auxiliary action.

Note: This means, of course, that you will usually try to reach a neutral building tile or a building tile of your own color, because only there can you perform local actions.

3

When you reach Kansas City, you must carry out all of the 5 Kansas City subphases in succession.

To make sure that you do not forget any subphase, move your herder along the numbered spots and perform the corresponding subphase before moving on to the next spot.

The 5 Kansas City subphases are:

1. Foresight 1: Choose one of the 2 tiles in the foresight spaces below spot 1 and move it to its corresponding section.
2. Foresight 2: Choose one of the 2 tiles in the foresight spaces below spot 2 and move it to its corresponding section.
3. Foresight 3: Choose one of the 2 tiles in the foresight spaces below spot 3 and move it to its corresponding section.
4. Income: Reveal your entire hand, calculate your income and gain that amount from the bank. Then discard your hand to your personal discard pile.
5. Delivery: Move one of your player discs from your player board onto a city crest and pay any transport costs arising.

1., 2., 3. Foresights

Each of the 3 tiles that you choose in subphases 1, 2 and 3 must immediately be moved to its corresponding section:

Outlaw tile

If it is an outlaw tile (green or orange), place it in the outlaw section onto the empty space with the lowest number. If no empty space is left there, take the outlaw tile out of the game by returning it to the box.

Hazard tile

If it is a hazard tile, place it in the corresponding hazard section (flood, drought or rockfall) onto the empty space with the lowest number. If no empty space is left there, take the hazard tile out of the game by returning it to the box.

Worker Tiles

If it is a worker tile, place it onto the next free space of the job market. To determine that next free space, apply the following rules:

• The tile must always be placed in the row where the job market token is located.

• The spaces of that row must always be filled from left to right.

• If you are playing with fewer than 4 players, also consider the following:

  In a 3-player game, each row only comprises 3 spaces (starting beneath the 3-player count sign) and the entire left column is left empty.

  In a 2-player game, each row only comprises 2 spaces (starting beneath the 2-player count sign) and both left columns are left empty.

• The last space to be filled in each row is always the one with the job market token. And as you place a worker tile onto that space, move the job market token along the arrow to the dashed round space of the next row.

Usually, when the job market token is moved to the next row, nothing in particular happens. However, when the job market token is moved along a yellow arrow, you must immediately fill up the cattle market.

When this happens, draw from the market cattle stack as many cards as it takes to bring the cards in the cattle market up to their initial number:

• In a 2-player game: Fill the cattle market up to its total of 7 cards.
• In a 3-player game: Fill the cattle market up to its total of 10 cards.
• In a 4-player game: Fill the cattle market up to its total of 13 cards.

As in the setup, sort all cattle cards by color and place them face up in an overlapping row in which the left side of each card is visible. For clarity, the cards of this row should be arranged in the usual order from left to right: yellow, red, blue, brown, purple.

• If you must fill up the cattle market but the number of cattle cards in the market is already equal to (or higher than) the total for your player count, don’t add any cards to it.
• If the market cattle stack is empty, no more cards are added to the cattle market.

If the job market token is moved from the bottom row along the green arrow, the end of the game is triggered.

4. Income

Reveal your entire hand to the other players and calculate its total breeding value. To do this, sum the breeding values of each different type of cattle that you have in hand. This means each type is counted only once, no matter how many cards of that type you have. (Ignore any victory points on your cattle cards and any objective cards for now.)

Then, if possible and if you like, you can increase that total breeding value by adding certificates to it. There are 2 types of certificates in the game: temporary certificates and permanent certificates.

Temporary certificates are those on your certificate track: The number next to the current position of your certificate marker tells you how many temporary certificates you have available. Of those, you can use as many now as you want by moving your certificate marker backwards accordingly.

Permanent certificates are those on the upper half of any station master tiles in front of you: Each of those increases your total breeding value by the number indicated on the tile for the rest of the game. (On how to receive station master tiles see section “Upgrading train stations”.)

Once your total breeding value is set (including any certificates), take that many Dollars from the bank. Place this amount a little set off from the rest of your money so that you are able to track that total breeding value in subphase 5.

Then discard all cards from your hand to your personal discard pile.

5. Delivery

The cattle for which you just received your income must now be delivered to a city along the railroad track. The crest of each city shows a city value that corresponds to that cattle’s total breeding value: the higher the total breeding value, the farther up the railroad you can deliver.

To do this, decide on a city whose city value is equal to or lower than your cattle’s total breeding value. Bear in mind, however, that you are not allowed to choose any city to which you have delivered before (that already has one of your discs on its city space). The only exceptions to this rule are:

• the local city, Kansas City and
• the terminal city, New York.

You may deliver to either of these cities even if you already have one or more of your discs there.

Once you have decided on a city, place one of your player discs onto its city space (if other discs are already there, put it on top of those). Take that player disc from any of the disc spaces of your player board but keep in mind that there are 2 types of disc spaces: Those with white corners and those with dark corners.

1. A disc from a disc space with white corners can be placed onto any city space.
2. A disc from a disc space with dark corners, however, can only be placed onto a city space that also has dark corners.

By clearing a disc space of its disc this way, you unlock its ability. Note that some of the disc spaces with dark corners have additional requirements or give rewards for clearing them.

Important:

By clearing any of the disc spaces in the auxiliary action section, you broaden your options when performing auxiliary actions.

By clearing either of these spaces, you increase your step limit. If you take the disc from the space on the left, immediately gain 3 Dollars from the bank. The 3 victory points for clearing the space on the right are awarded at the end of the game.

By clearing either of these spaces, you increase your hand limit. However, if you take a disc from either one of these spaces, you must immediately pay 5 Dollars to the bank. If you can’t, you must choose another space to clear.

By clearing these spaces, you increase your temporary certificate limit (you start with a limit of 3). However, if you clear the 6-certificate space before the 4-certificate space, your temporary certificate limit remains 3 until you also have cleared the 4-certificate space.

By placing your disc onto a city space, you may gain or lose victory points at the end of the game and may trigger delivery actions which you must perform immediately.

If you place your disc on the Kansas City space, immediately gain 4 Dollars from the bank. At the end of the game, you will lose 6 victory points for that disc.

Attention: An action in any of the green arrows is not triggered until both adjacent city spaces have one of your discs on them. The same is true for victory points in green arrows. Only if both adjacent city spaces have one of your discs on them, have you unlocked the victory points between them.

This delivery action is triggered when you place your disc onto one of its adjacent city spaces while the other adjacent city space already has one of your discs on it. Now you must immediately choose one objective card from the general objective display, place it face up onto your personal discard pile and replenish the display if necessary. (For details see “Gain one objective card”). If the placing of your disc triggers this action in both adjacent green arrows, you must perform the action twice. (The general objective display is replenished before gaining the second objective card.)

Finally, check whether you need to pay any transport costs for your delivery. This depends on the position of your engine on the railroad track:

• If your engine is directly beneath or farther up the railroad track than the city space onto which you just placed your disc, you have no transport costs.
• If your engine is farther down the track than that city space, you must pay transport costs as follows: Pay 1 Dollar to the bank for each cross that is located between the nose of your engine and the city value of that crest.

Note: Since you gain your income beforehand, you are always able to pay any transport costs arising. (On how engines are moved, see Move your engine forward.)

After finishing the Delivery subphase, carry out these two final steps:

1. Move your herder to the start of the trail, by placing it onto the horseman space in the lower right corner of the game board. The next time it is your turn, the movement of your herder starts from there.
2. Refill each of the 3 empty foresight spaces in Kansas City with tiles drawn from the Kansas City supply. Make sure that onto each space you place a face-up tile whose number on the back matches the number of that space.

PHASE C: Draw up to your hand limit

Each player starts with a hand limit of 4 and can increase it up to 6. If you have fewer cards in your hand now than the current hand limit your player board indicates, bring their number up to that limit by drawing as many cards from your personal draw stack as you lack. (If necessary, shuffle your personal discard pile and use it to replace your run-out draw stack.)

Note: If you just went through the subphases of Kansas City, you must replenish your entire hand, of course.

Then it is the next player’s turn.

ACTIONS

The Actions

The main source of actions in the game is the local actions of the neutral building tiles and of your private building tiles, though there are a few other situations in which actions might be triggered (delivery actions, single auxiliary actions, etc.).

However, irrespective of the situation in which actions are performed, the actions themselves are always represented by the same icons. So wherever the same icon appears, it refers to the same action.

We start with a few general notes and explanations. Right after that, the local actions of the tiles will be explained in detail.

General notes: Quite a few actions consist of a specific requirement and a specific reward. Only if you meet the requirement are you allowed to gain the reward. Requirements are usually associated with red (red arrows or red numbers), while rewards are usually associated with green and white (green arrows and/or white numbers).

Important: You are allowed to forfeit a reward completely or in part even though you meet the requirement. However, if you receive an amount of Dollars as a reward, you must take that entire amount.

The most frequent requirement is discarding cards. Wherever an action shows one or more cards with a red arrow, you must discard the exact depicted card(s) from your hand to your face-up personal discard pile in order to gain the reward shown next to it. (As mentioned before, you can perform the action only once, no matter how often you would be able to meet the requirement.)

Attention: If a specific card is meant, it is represented by its color and breeding value.

For the remainder of this rules explanation, keep the following terminology in mind:

• Whenever we speak of DISCARDING A CARD, it always implies that you must place the card from your hand face up onto your personal discard pile.
• Whenever we speak of GAINING A SPECIFIC AMOUNT OF DOLLARS, it always implies that you must take that exact amount from the bank.
• Whenever we speak of PAYING A SPECIFIC AMOUNT OF DOLLARS, it always implies that you must return that exact amount to the bank.
• Whenever we speak of MOVING YOUR CERTIFICATE MARKER FORWARD, it always implies that your certificate marker is moved forward on your certificate track. You can move it as many spaces forward as the particular action icon indicates. However, you can never move your certificate marker beyond your temporary certificate limit (which is 3 at the beginning of the game).
• Whenever we speak of MOVING YOUR ENGINE A NUMBER OF SPACES, it always implies that your engine is moved along the spaces of the railroad track.

Hire one worker

When you perform this action, choose exactly one worker tile from the job market, pay that worker’s hiring cost and place that tile in the worker section of your player board.

Bear the following rules in mind:

• You are not allowed to hire a worker from the row where the job market token is currently located. Those workers are unavailable until the job market token has moved on.

• The hiring cost of any of the other workers in the job market is the cost depicted on the right side of their row. However, this hiring cost is modified by the value shown on the action icon itself:

  • -0 = The hiring cost is not modified.
  • -2 = Costs 2 Dollars more.
  • +1 = Costs 1 Dollar less.

After you have paid the hiring cost, place the worker tile in your worker section, onto the leftmost free space in the row of its worker type. Note that each player already starts the game with one worker of each of the 3 types (cowboy, builder, engineer) which means that the first space of each row is already occupied.

If the space on which you place the hired worker depicts an immediate action, you must choose to either perform that action immediately or forfeit it. (The icons of these actions should be self-explanatory once you have read the rules.)

• If a row is already full, you are not allowed to hire another worker of that type.
• At the end of the game, each worker that is placed on the fifth or sixth space of any row is worth 4 victory points.

Buy cattle from the cattle market

When you perform this action, you can acquire new cattle cards from the cattle market and place them face up onto your personal discard pile. However, the number and types of cattle cards that you may acquire in the course of this action is not fixed.

Instead, your options depend on how many cowboys you have in your cowboy row as well as how much money you spend.

If you have just one cowboy in your cowboy row, you only have the option of:

• EITHER buying one cattle card with a breeding value of 3 for 6 Dollars
• OR buying one “Shorthorn” cattle card for 12 Dollars.

If you have 2 cowboys, you have more options:

• You could, for example, buy 2 cattle cards: For instance, 2 cattle cards with a breeding value of 3 for 6 Dollars each.
• OR you could buy one cattle card with a breeding value of 3 for 3 Dollars
• OR one “Hereford” cattle card for 12 Dollars.

This means that the more cowboys you have, the better are your options. How you split your cowboys among these options is up to you, as long as you make sure that each of your cowboys is only put to use once during this action.

• If you put 3 Cowboys to use and pay 5 Dollars, you get exactly 2 cattle cards with a breeding value of 3 each.
• If you put 5 Cowboys to use and pay 8 Dollars, you get exactly 2 “Shorthorn” cattle cards.

Any cowboy that you do not put to use to buy cattle cards you may instead use in the following way: Draw 2 cards from the market cattle stack and add them face up to the cattle market. You may do this at any given moment while performing this action.

Important:

• You can only buy cattle cards that are currently available in the cattle market.
• You can always choose to buy fewer cattle cards than you are allowed.
• Any cattle card that you acquire during this action must be placed face up onto your personal discard pile.

Move your engine forward

If you move your engine via this action icon, you can move it up to as many spaces forward on the railroad track as you have engineers in your engineer row.

When moving your engine, bear the following rules in mind:

• Except for the starting space, no space of the railroad track can accommodate more than one engine at a time. This means that when moving your engine, you must ignore any space entirely that is occupied by another engine (as if that space was not there).
• Along the track, there are several turnout spaces, each of which belongs to a train station. Each turnout space counts as one additional space between the two spaces it emerges from. So coming from a space with a switch, you can either move your engine to the next numbered space or move it to the train station’s turnout space (if it is not blocked by another engine).
• When choosing to move your engine via an action, you may move it fewer spaces than allowed (but you must move it at least one space). However, once you decide to stop on a space, you instantly forfeit any excess movement you might have left from that action. So if you move to a turnout space to upgrade its train station, that action is concluded, even if you moved fewer spaces to get there than you could have.

Note: Some other actions let you move your engine forward regardless of the number of engineers. In this case the same rule apply.

Upgrading train stations

If you stop the movement of your engine on a turnout space of a train station, you must immediately decide whether or not you want to upgrade that train station.

Attention: You can only upgrade a train station if you can pay the upgrade cost and if you have not upgraded that train station before (which you’ll recognize because you’ll already have one of your discs on it). It does not matter if any of your opponents already have a disc on it.

To upgrade the train station, pay the upgrade cost depicted right next to it. Then place one of your player discs onto its station space (if other discs are already there, put it on top of those). Take that player disc from any of the disc spaces of your player board but bear in mind that the station spaces also either have white corners or black corners. As with the city spaces during delivery, a disc from a disc space with white corners can be placed onto any station space. A disc from a disc space with dark corners can only be placed onto a station space that also has dark corners.

After you have placed your disc onto the station space, check whether there is a station master tile placed right next to it. If so, you may now acquire that station master tile by appointing one of your hired workers as the station master. To do this, choose from your worker section any of your hired workers currently placed on the rightmost space of its respective row. Remove that worker tile from your player board, put it in place of the station master tile and finally place that station master tile face up next to your player board.

• Only at the moment in which you upgrade a train station do you get the chance to acquire its station master tile. If you forfeit that chance, you have no way of getting it later.
• If you remove a worker from your worker section and thus uncover its immediate action again, you can perform that action the next time you place another hired worker onto that space.
• Once a worker tile is placed on a station master space, it remains there for the rest of the game.

Each station master tile comprises two parts:

• The upper half either depicts an immediate action or a permanent certificate. If you receive a tile with an immediate action, either perform that action right away or forfeit it.

• The lower half depicts a unique way of gaining additional victory points at the end of the game.

Immediate actions on station master tiles:

• Perform either the action “Remove a hazard” free of charge OR the action “Collect bounty for outlaws”.
• Gain 2 Dollars.
• Gain 12 Dollars.
• Move your certificate marker up to 2 spaces forward.

The last space of the railroad track (space 39) is special. If your engine reaches this space, its movement ends there (and you may upgrade the train station as usual). Then you must move your engine backwards. You must move your engine at least one space backwards and may move it to any free space along the track (even a turnout space). After you have done so, immediately gain 3 Dollars. If you did move it to a turnout space, you can immediately upgrade its train station as usual (and even use the money which you just received).

Gain one objective card

When you perform this action, either choose one objective card from the general objective display to the right of the game board or draw the top card of the objective stack. Place this card face up onto your personal discard pile. If you take a card from the objective display, fill its vacant place immediately with a new face-up card drawn from the objective stack.

At some point later, the objective cards you acquired will enter your hand.

During your own turn, if you happen to have one or more objective cards in your hand, you can play any of them, either:

• before performing phase A
• or before or after performing any single action in phase B.

This means that you are neither allowed to play objective cards in the middle of an action nor after you have started to carry out phase C.

When you play an objective card, place it face up in your personal objective area (beneath your player board).

Then perform the immediate action depicted in the upper left corner of the card or forfeit it.

The following immediate actions can be found on objective cards:

Move your herder up to 3 steps forward along the trail, ignoring any green and black hands. However, you are not allowed to use the location on which you stop. So if you move your herder before phase A, you then start the usual movement of phase A from that location. If you move your herder after using a location in phase B, you directly carry out phase C once your herder reaches the new location. You are not allowed to move to Kansas City via this immediate action.

• Draw up to 3 cards from your personal draw stack. Then immediately discard as many cards as you drew.
• Gain 2 Dollars.
• Move your engine up to 2 or 3 spaces forward.
• Perform one single or one double auxiliary action.

Each objective card depicts a combination of tasks to be fulfilled at the end of the game. If all of the tasks of an objective card are fulfilled by then, you gain the victory points printed on it.

If its tasks are not fulfilled completely, you lose the negative victory point value printed on it. (Only your starting objective card has no negative victory point value.)

Important: Each single fulfilled task can only count towards one objective card. So if several objective cards show the same tasks, each of these tasks must be fulfilled individually.

The following tasks can be found on objective cards:

• Have 1 building tile on the game board.
• Have 1 orange outlaw tile in front of you.
• Have 1 hazard tile in front of you (of any kind).
• Have 1 of your discs on a train station.
• Have 1 cattle card with a breeding value of 3 in your deck.
• Have 1 “Shorthorn” cattle card in your deck.
• Have 1 “Hereford” cattle card in your deck.
• Have 1 of your discs on the city space of New York.

Note: You are not compelled to play your objective cards. If you want, you can keep some or all of them in your deck by the usual means. For each objective card that is still in your deck at the end of the game, you may then decide if you want to score it or not. For the cards placed in your personal objective area, you do not have that choice. Those must be scored.

Place one of your private buildings

When you perform this action, choose one of the private building tiles above your player board:

EITHER place it onto any empty building space on the trail OR use it to replace one of your private building tiles that is already placed on a building space on the trail.

Remember: The side of each building tile is identical for all players. You are not allowed to flip it to its other side.

Before choosing a building tile for this action, you must make sure:

a) that you have enough builders for it AND
b) that you can pay that building tile’s cost.

In its upper left corner, each private building tile shows how many builders you need for it. If the number of builders in the builder row of your worker section equals or exceeds that number, you can place the tile onto any empty building space on the trail, provided you immediately pay its cost:

For each builder needed for that building tile, you must pay 2 Dollars.

Alternatively, you can use this action to replace one of your private building tiles on the trail with a higher-valued private building tile from above your player board. For this, you only need to have the difference of builders between the 2 building tiles and also only must pay the difference. Then put the new building tile in place of the old one and remove that old building tile entirely from the game by returning it to the box. This is the only way to place buildings that require more than 6 workers.

Note: The neutral building tile “B” is the only one that allows you to place your own building tiles on the game board. The only other way to do it are the immediate actions of your builder row. Those have the additional advantage that you must only pay 1 Dollar per builder needed rather than 2.

Perform one single or one double auxiliary action

The auxiliary action section of your player board shows 5 different auxiliary actions.

Each auxiliary action has 2 disc spaces next to it. As long as both disc spaces of an auxiliary action are occupied by a disc, the particular action is locked and cannot be used. Only if at least one of its disc spaces has been cleared is the action unlocked and available.

Whenever you use this action icon, choose one of your available auxiliary actions and perform it. If only one of that action’s disc spaces is cleared, you can use the particular action once (single auxiliary action). If both disc spaces of that action are cleared, you may use it as a double auxiliary action. This means that its requirement (if it has one) and its reward are both doubled.

If you use this icon to perform one single auxiliary action on a location (instead of its local actions), you can never double it (even if both disc spaces of the particular action are cleared).

When you are required to move your engine backwards, this is done similarly to forward movement. If a space is occupied by another engine, you ignore that space (thus moving farther backwards). You can move backwards to a turnout space and if you stop there, you may upgrade its train station as usual.

• However, as this is a requirement, you can never deliberately move fewer spaces backwards than required.
• If your engine is on the starting space of the railroad track, you cannot use an action that requires you to move your engine backwards.
• Note that the engine is never turned around. While moving backwards, its nose must still keep facing forward.

Single auxiliary action	Double auxiliary action
Gain 1 Dollar.	Gain 2 Dollars.
Draw 1 card from your personal draw stack. Then discard 1 card.	Draw 2 cards from your personal draw stack. Then discard 2 cards.
Pay 1 Dollar and move your engine 1 space backwards. Then move your certificate marker 1 space forward.	Pay 2 Dollars and move your engine 2 spaces backwards. Then move your certificate marker up to 2 spaces forward.
Pay 1 Dollar and move your engine 1 space forward.	Pay 2 Dollars and move your engine up to 2 spaces forward.
Move your engine 1 space backwards. Then gain 1 Dollar and remove 1 of your hand cards entirely from the game (and thus your deck) by returning it to the box.	Move your engine 2 spaces backwards. Then gain 2 Dollars and remove 2 of your hand cards entirely from the game (and thus your deck) by returning them to the box.

Collect bounty for outlaws

When you perform this action, remove one outlaw tile of your choice from the outlaw section and place it face up in front of you. As a bonus, you immediately either gain money or an exchange token.

If the outlaw section is empty, you cannot perform this action.

Gain an exchange token

When you perform this action, gain one exchange token from the bank and place it in front of you.

The exchange tokens are special because you can use one or more of them at any point in the game—even, in the middle of an action or when it is not your turn.

To use an exchange token, place it back into the bank. Then draw up to 2 cards from your personal draw stack and immediately discard as many cards as you drew.

Each player starts the game with one exchange token and you may gain new ones on different occasions:

• as a local action on your private building 12b
• as a delivery action
• as a bonus when collecting bounty for outlaws

Remove a hazard

When you perform this action, remove one hazard tile of your choice from any hazard section and place it face up in front of you.

If the icon shows a cost, you must immediately pay that many Dollars (otherwise you are not allowed to take a hazard tile).

If the icon shows no cost, take the hazard tile free of charge.

Each hazard tile has either 2, 3 or 4 victory points printed on it. As usual, you gain those at the end of the game.

If all 3 hazard sections are empty, you cannot get a hazard tile.

Move your herder forward

This local action allows you to move your herder forward to another location along the trail.

If you do, you must move it at least 1 step and may not move it more steps than the number in the icon states.

On the location where you stop, you must then perform once more all of phase B.

Note that you do not replenish your hand cards before performing phase B again. This is only done at the end of your turn.

END OF THE GAME

The game end is triggered when you place a worker tile onto the last space of the job market while carrying out subphase 2 or 3 in Kansas City. As this makes the job market token move along the green arrow out of the job market, immediately take the job market token and place it in front of you. If this happens during subphase 2, carry out subphase 3 but you may not choose another worker tile (as there is no space left in the job market). If there are only worker tiles left, skip subphase 3 entirely. Afterwards, carry out subphases 4 and 5 as usual and also refill any empty foresight spaces at the end of your turn. This was your last turn.

Then, each of the other players has one final turn, in which they move their herder as usual and use the reached location. Players that move to Kansas City during their final turn also carry out the 5 subphases as usual. However, they may not choose any worker tiles from the foresight spaces when performing subphases 2 and 3 (skipping those entirely if there are only worker tiles left). Still, at the end of their turn, they must refill any empty foresight spaces.

After the last player has finished their final turn, the game ends. Now, attend to the final scoring.

The final scoring

Take the scoring pad and go through its 11 categories. In each category, write down the victory points for each player as follows:

1. Gain 1 victory point for every 5 Dollars that you own.
2. Gain the sum of the victory points printed on each of your private building tiles that is placed on the game board.
3. Gain the sum of the victory points that you have unlocked with your discs on the city crests. Any negative victory points must be subtracted of course. (Thus even negative sums are possible.)
4. Gain the sum of the victory points printed right next to each train station that has your disc on it.
5. Gain the sum of the victory points printed on each of the collected hazard tiles in front of you.
6. From your deck (personal draw stack, hand cards and personal discard pile), seek out all cattle cards that have victory points on them. Then gain the sum of those victory points.
7. You must seek out all objective cards that you still have in your deck. For each of those, you must decide whether you want to remove it from the game or add it to your personal objective area now (without using its immediate action). Afterwards, check each objective card in your personal objective area to see if you have fulfilled each of its tasks individually. For all cards that are entirely fulfilled, sum the positive victory points printed on them. For all cards that you have not fulfilled completely, subtract the negative points printed on them. Then gain the result as your victory points (this can also be a negative result).
8. Gain the sum of victory points generated by the individual tasks of the station master tiles that you have in front of you. These individual tasks are totally independent of the tasks on objective cards.
9. Gain 4 victory points for each worker that is placed on the fifth or sixth space of any row in your worker section.
10. Gain 3 victory points if you managed to clear this disc space on your player board.
11. Gain 2 victory points if you have the job market token in front of you.

Whoever has the most victory points in total wins the game. In the case of a tie, the victory is shared.

The individual tasks of the station master tiles

Gain 1 victory point for each worker in your worker section (including the ones printed on the player board).

Gain 3 victory points for every 2 objective cards in your objective area (whether you fulfilled them or not).

Gain 3 victory points for every 2 hazard tiles you have collected (of any kind).

Gain 3 victory points for each pair consisting of 1 green outlaw tile and 1 orange outlaw tile you have collected.

Gain 3 victory points for every 2 certificates you have (no matter if they are permanent or temporary).

Gain 3 victory points for every 2 station spaces that have your disc on them.

Gain 2 victory points for each of your private building tiles that is placed on the game board.

VARIANT: Simmental

The orange Simmental cattle cards are part of a new variant to play Great Western Trail. This cattle card comes with 3 stages: the Simmental Calf, the Simmental Heifer and the Simmental Cow. Only stage 1 is available on the cattle market.

Each time you reach Kansas City you may upgrade your orange Simmental cattle cards to the next stage in order to get a more valuable version.

Changes to the Setup:

A) During step 9 of the setup add all 8 stage 1 “Simmental” cattle cards to the 36 market cattle cards, shuffle them and place them as a face-down market cattle stack beneath the lower left of the game board.

B) Place the Simmental market tile on the game board so that it covers the corresponding area of the cattle market.

C) Then, depending on your player count, draw a number of cattle cards from this stack:

• In a 2-player game: Draw 9 cards.
• In a 3-player game: Draw 12 cards.
• In a 4-player game: Draw 15 cards.

Progress as usual but place the orange cattle cards to the very left (if there are any).

D) Take the stage 2 and stage 3 cards and place them in separate stacks next to the game board (close to Kansas City).

Changes to the cattle market:

When you perform the action “Buy cattle from the cattle market” you have the following additional options:

1. If you put one cowboy to use, you can buy one stage 1 “Simmental” cattle card for 8 Dollars.
2. If you put 2 cowboys to use, you can buy one stage 1 “Simmental” cattle card for 5 Dollars.

Changes to Kansas City:

Add the following step at the end of subphase 4 after you have taken the Dollars from the bank but before discarding your hand:

If you have any stage 1 “Simmental” cattle cards in your hand, you may remove them entirely from the game (and thus your deck) by returning them to the box and take the same number of stage 2 “Simmental” cattle cards and put them on your discard pile. Then, if you have any stage 2 “Simmental” cattle cards in your hand you may remove them from your hand entirely from the game by returning them to the box and take the same number of stage 3 “Simmental” cattle cards and put them on your discard pile.

Important: The newly gained cattle card(s) will not increase your just calculated total breeding value.

Notes: When calculating your total breeding value, if you have multiple orange “Simmental” cattle cards in your hand you may only add the breeding value of one of the orange cattle cards even if they are cards of different stages.

If an action requires you to discard a cattle card of any type from your hand, you may also discard an orange “Simmental” cattle card.

If an action requires you to discard a cattle card of a certain breeding value and the iconography does not include orange cattle cards, you may not discard an orange “Simmental” cattle card.

General notes and special cases

• Money and exchange tokens are considered unlimited. If the bank should run out, use something else as a substitute.
• If the objective stack should run out, the vacant spaces in the general objective display are not refilled anymore. If the general objective display is empty, no new objective cards can be gained.
• You are allowed to look through the cards of your personal discard pile at any time. You are not allowed to look at the cards of your personal draw stack.
• As you can remove cards from the game via an auxiliary action, you are able to slim your deck down. There is no limit to how small your deck can become. If you should reach the point when you don’t have enough cards in your deck to replenish your hand to its limit, you simply have to get by on fewer cards (which is not advisable).
• If you must place a disc onto a city space during delivery or onto a station space while upgrading it, some special cases can occur: If you are supposed to place a disc onto a space with white corners but only happen to have discs on disc spaces with dark corners left, you are allowed to place a disc from a disc space with dark corners onto a space with white corners. If you are supposed to place a disc but are unable to (because you have none left or cannot pay for their removal), remove one of your discs from a train station of your choice and place that one instead.
• If you replace a building while your herder is on that building, you are not allowed to immediately use the new building’s local actions.
• If you remove a hazard or outlaw tile on which there are any herders, leave those herders on the empty space. They continue their movement from there as usual.