Game Objective

Howdy, partner! Welcome to the Wild West of Great Western Trail: Second Edition! Get ready to put on your boots and round up your cattle, because here, fortune awaits the most cunning ranchers. Your main objective is simple, yet challenging: become the Cattle King!

To do this, you will guide your herd along an arduous trail, from the bottom right corner of the board to bustling Kansas City, in the top left corner. Along the way, you will perform strategic actions, such as building structures, buying more valuable cattle, and upgrading train stations. Each time you reach Kansas City, it's time to send your cattle East, seeking out the most distant cities to maximize your profits.

The game ends when the job market token leaves the last row (indicated by a green arrow). At the end of the game, all accumulated victory points will be tallied. Sum the victory point symbols on your components, on your station master tokens, and on the spaces marked with your color on the board. The player with the most victory points will be crowned the great cattle champion!

Setup

Let's set up the table and prepare your ranch for the journey!

1. Place the game board in the center of the table.
2. Shuffle the 9 station master tokens and place one face-up on each of the 5 station master spaces. The remaining 4 are returned to the box.
3. Take the 7 neutral building tokens. If this is your first game, place each token on the space marked with the corresponding letter (A to G). In subsequent games, shuffle and distribute them randomly.
4. Place the job market token on the top dotted circle of the job market.
5. Take the 54 worker tokens, the 22 outlaw tokens, and the 18 hazard tokens. Turn them face down, separate them by the numbers on their backs (1, 2, and 3), and place them in their corresponding bags. These bags form the Kansas City supply.
6. From the Kansas City supply, draw 7 tokens with a number on the back and place them on the board:
   • If it's an outlaw token (green or orange), place it in the outlaw section on the lowest numbered empty space (1 to 9).
   • If it's a hazard token, place it in its corresponding hazard section (flood, drought, or landslide) on the lowest numbered empty space (1 to 4). If there is no space, return it to the bag and draw a new one.
7. Begin by drawing tokens with a number on the back (worker tokens only) from the Kansas City supply. Place them in the job market: start in the top row, placing the first token below the player count symbol. Continue to the right. When you reach the end of the row, go to the next row, again aligning with the player count symbol, and continue to the right until you place a token to the left of the job market token. Depending on the number of players, there will be 3, 5, or 7 worker tokens in the job market.
8. Fill the 6 forecast spaces in Kansas City with tokens from the Kansas City supply:
   • Draw 2 tokens with a number on the back and place them face-up on the forecast spaces marked with 1.
   • Draw 2 tokens with a number on the back and place them face-up on the forecast spaces marked with 2.
   • Draw 2 tokens with a number on the back and place them face-up on the forecast spaces marked with 3.
9. Shuffle the 36 cattle market cards and place them face-down as the cattle market deck. Draw cards from this deck (7 for 2 players, 10 for 3 players, 13 for 4 players). Divide the drawn cards by color and place them face-up in the cattle market, forming an overlapping row (yellow, red, blue, brown, purple, from left to right).
10. Shuffle the 24 objective cards and place them as a face-down deck. Reveal 4 cards and place them face-up in a column below the deck, forming the general objective area.
11. Place the coins and exchange tokens within reach of all players, forming the bank.

Player Setup

Now, each of you will set up your own ranch!

12. Each player chooses a color and receives the corresponding player board. In 2 or 3 player games, you also receive the player count tile of your color, flipping it to the appropriate side and using it to cover Phase A of your board.
13. Receive the 12 private building tokens of your color.
    • In first games, flip them to side 'a' and arrange them above your board in ascending order of required builders.
    • For more experienced players, one player can randomly determine the side of each building token, and all other players copy that sequence.
14. Receive the following items of your color:
    • 14 discs – place them on each of the colored circular spaces on your player board (the 2 top-left gray spaces remain empty).
    • 1 locomotive – place it on the starting space (the red building) of the railway on the game board.
    • 1 certificate marker – place it on the top space of your certificate track (next to 0).
    • 1 pawn – place it near your player board for now.
15. Receive the 14 player cattle cards (identified with a star of your color). These cards form your herd deck. Shuffle it and place it face-down as your personal draw pile, to the left of your board.
16. Shuffle the 4 starting objective cards and deal one randomly to each player, who places it face-up below their player board, forming their personal objective area. The remaining cards are returned to the box.
17. Determine the starting player. Others will follow clockwise. Receive your starting capital and 1 exchange token from the bank, and draw cards from your personal draw pile 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.

Important: At the beginning of your first turn in the game, discard cards from your hand until you have only 4 remaining. Discarded cards go to your personal discard pile. Then, place your pawn on any neutral building token and automatically proceed to Phase B. You can start on the same building as other players.

The Game Turn

A rancher's life is busy! On your turn, you will follow these three phases in order:

1. PHASE A: Move your pawn to another location along the trail.
2. PHASE B: Use the action(s) of the reached location.
3. PHASE C: Draw cards until you reach your hand limit.

After that, it's the next player's turn.

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

In this phase, you must move your pawn from the current location to another along the trail. Remember:

• Movement is measured in steps. Each location (building, hazard, and outlaw tokens) counts as 1 step. Empty spaces are not locations.
• You must always move your pawn forward, following the trail arrows.
• If there is a fork, choose one of the paths.
• The location where your pawn ends its movement (by choice or by lack of steps) is the location you will use in Phase B.
• You cannot cross Kansas City; your movement must end there.
• Multiple pawns can occupy the same location.
• You must move your pawn a minimum of 1 step and cannot exceed your current step limit (you start with 3 or 4, depending on the number of players, and can increase it).
• Attention: Locations with green or black hands require immediate payment of a fee to the bank (if it's a hazard/outlaw token) or to another player (if it's their private building). If you cannot pay, pay what you can and continue moving.

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

After moving your pawn, you will use the location where it ended its movement. Your options depend on the type of location:

• On a neutral building token or a private building token of your color: You have two options:
  1. Use the local actions of that token: Most building tokens show two different local actions. You can perform each of them once, in any order, and do not have to perform all of them. If an action has a cost, you must pay it in full. Some tokens show two actions separated by a white slash; you can only perform one of them. Risk actions attached to trail spaces become part of the local actions of the token there.
  2. Use a single auxiliary action: If you perform NONE of the local actions of the token, then, and only then, you can perform a single auxiliary action (found on the left side of your player board). Initially, only 2 are available; others are unlocked by vacating disc spaces.
• On another player's private building token, a hazard token, or an outlaw token: You have only one option:
  • Perform a single auxiliary action.
• In Kansas City: You must perform all 5 Kansas City subphases in sequence. Move your pawn through the numbered spaces and perform the corresponding subphase:
  1. Forecast 1, 2, and 3: Choose one of the 2 tokens in the forecast spaces below spaces 1, 2, and 3, respectively, and move it to its corresponding section (worker to the job market, outlaw to the outlaw section, hazard to the hazard section).
     • If it's a worker token, place it in the next free space of the job market, in the same row as the job market token, from left to right. If the job market token is moved to the next row and crosses a yellow arrow, the cattle market is refilled (7, 10, or 13 cards, depending on the number of players). If the job market token leaves the last row via the green arrow, the end of the game is triggered.
     • If it's an outlaw token, place it in the outlaw section on the lowest numbered empty space. If there is none, remove it from the game.
     • If it's a hazard token, place it in the corresponding hazard section on the lowest numbered empty space. If there is none, remove it from the game.
  2. Income: Reveal all cards in your hand. Calculate your total breeding value by summing the breeding values of each DIFFERENT TYPE of cattle in your hand (each type counts only once). You can increase this value by adding temporary certificates (moving your certificate marker backward) and permanent certificates (from station master tokens). Gain that amount in Dollars from the bank. Discard your hand to your personal discard pile.
  3. Delivery: Choose a city on the railway whose city value is equal to or less than your total breeding value. You cannot choose a city where you have delivered before, except Kansas City and New York. Place one of your player discs on the city space. Take the disc from any space on your player board; discs from spaces with black corners can only go to cities with black corners. Vacating disc spaces unlocks abilities (such as increasing step or hand limit, or gaining Dollars/VPs). Check for transport costs: pay 1 Dollar to the bank for each cross between your locomotive and the city value of the stamp, if your locomotive is behind the city.

  After the Delivery subphase:

  1. Move your pawn to the start of the trail (cowboy space, bottom right corner).
  2. Refill the 3 empty forecast spaces in Kansas City with tokens from the supply, corresponding to the number on the back.

Common Actions

Actions are represented by icons and can be found on building tokens, auxiliary actions, delivery actions, and objective cards. Here are some of the most important:

• Discard Cards: Whenever an action shows cards with a red arrow, you must discard the indicated cards from your hand to your personal discard pile to gain the reward.
• Gain Dollars: Take the exact amount from the bank.
• Pay Dollars: Return the exact amount to the bank.
• Move Certificate Marker Forward: Move your certificate marker on the track, but never beyond your temporary certificate limit (3 initially).
• Move Locomotive Forward: Move your locomotive through the railway spaces. Spaces occupied by other locomotives are ignored. You can stop at a siding space to upgrade a train station.
• Buy Cattle from the Cattle Market: Acquire new cattle cards from the market and place them in your personal discard pile. The quantity and types depend on how many cowboys you have and the money spent.
• Hire a Worker: Choose a worker token from the job market (not from the job market token's row), pay the cost (modified by the action icon), and place it in the leftmost free space of the corresponding row in your worker section. If the space shows an immediate action, you can perform it or ignore it. Workers in the 5th or 6th space are worth 4 VPs at the end.
• Upgrade Train Stations: If your locomotive stops at a siding space, you can upgrade the station by paying the cost and placing one of your discs on the station space (if you haven't upgraded before). You can then acquire the station master token by naming a worker from the rightmost space of their row, removing them and placing the station master token near your board. The station master token may have an immediate action or a permanent certificate, and a unique way to gain VPs at the end.