
2016 · American West
Great Western Trail
Players act as 19th-century ranchers driving cattle from Texas to Kansas City to load them onto trains for profit and victory points. Gameplay centers on managing a hand and deck of cattle cards to assemble higher-value herds, while moving along a shared trail and using buildings to access actions and bonuses. Players hire and deploy workers — cowboys to improve cattle, craftsmen to build personal buildings, and engineers to enhance rail connections — and balance route movement, deck management, and timing of deliveries. Scoring rewards valuable cattle, efficient use of buildings and workers, and development of the railroad network over multiple trips.
- Players
- 2–4 best 3
- Playing time
- 75–150 min
- Age
- 12+
- Complexity
- 3.7 / 5
About the game
- Design
- Publisher
Expansions
See them in Ludoya
Great Western Trail: Rails to the North2018
Great Western Trail: Promo Station Master Tiles2017
Great Western Trail: The Eleventh Building Tile2017
Great Western Trail: 13th Building Tile2019
Great Western Trail: At the Poker Table2018
Deutscher Spielepreis 2017 Goodie Box2017
Brettspiel Adventskalender 20182018
Super Power2019Photos from Ludoya tables
All photos in LudoyaWhere to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 1,227
- Plays logged
- 943
- Players
- 2h 1m
- Average play
- 215
- In collections
- 29
- On wishlists
8.0/10
from 152 Ludoya reviews
Garfield9.0 #57 Metallmünzen im Dach Thematic strategic game with the right amount of decisions to make. [c] Theme: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Good --> Gameplay: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]A lot of decisions but not too much --> Interaction: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Not that much --> Artwork: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Good, nothing special --> Luck: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Card drawing --> Strategy: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very strategic --> Components: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Nothing special --> Play duration: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> Easy to teach: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]A lot to teach --> Setup time: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]A lot of things to setup --> No downtime: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Still ok --> Replay value: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Different strategies --> [/c]
Jan Solo8.5 (Segunda Edición Revisada) Impro-Reseña⇒
Mestremuten10.0 Rating: 5/5 Production value: 4/4 Is the game in my collection/Love to have?: 1/1
Rules questions
Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.
How far can I move my cattleman each turn — do I have to use all my steps?
You must move at least 1 step and may move up to the step limit shown on your player board (start is 3 or 4 depending on player count); you must move forward along the trail (no backwards movement) and cannot pass over Kansas City (p.6).
If I pass private buildings or hazard tiles with green/black hands but don’t have enough money, what happens?
You must immediately pay the indicated fees (to the bank for hazards, to the owner for private buildings) as you pass or land on them, but if you cannot pay you are still allowed to move — pay as much as you can and you never owe fees retroactively (p.6).
When I land on a neutral or my own building, can I do its local actions and also an auxiliary action?
On a neutral building tile or a private tile you own you may perform each of that tile's local actions once (in any order); you may only perform an auxiliary action instead if you forfeit all of the tile's local actions (p.7; local actions explained pp.11–14).
How do deliveries work — how far can I deliver and when do I pay transport costs?
Your Income subphase sets a total breeding value (sum of different cattle types plus certificates) and you may deliver to any city whose city value is ≤ that total (you cannot deliver to a city you already have a disc on, except Kansas City and San Francisco); transport costs apply if your engine's nose is behind the city — pay $1 per crest between your engine nose and that city's crest — and disc placement follows the white/dark corner rules (pp.8–9).
How do auxiliary actions work — what's the difference between single and double auxiliary actions?
Each auxiliary action has two disc spaces: if at least one space is cleared the action is unlocked (single use), and if both spaces are cleared you may use it as a double action (requirements and rewards doubled); note that using an auxiliary action from a location in place of local actions can only be a single use even if both spaces are cleared (p.13).
When does the game end and do other players get a final turn?
The game end is triggered when a worker is placed on the last job‑market space during Kansas City subphase 2 or 3 (moving the job market token out); the active player finishes that turn and then each other player gets one final turn (they may go to Kansas City but cannot take worker tiles from foresight during their final Kansas City subphases) before final scoring (p.15).
Similar games
Free, on web, Android and iOS
Play Great Western Trail with Ludoya
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.




























