At the end of the 19th century, five railroad companies connected the Sun City of El Paso to their network and made it a major hub for the cattle trade. Ranchers from the surrounding parts of Texas and Mexico drove their cattle into the city to send them on their long journey to the north, east, and west of the United States. Now you can be one of these ranchers and create a larger cattle empire than your opponents in Great Western Trail: El Paso. 

Great Western Trail: El Paso is a tabletop game with a western theme for 1-4 players, ages 12 and up, and takes about 60-90 minutes to play. It’s currently available from your friendly local game store as well as from online retailers such as Amazon with a suggested retail price of $39.99. Great Western Trail: El Paso was designed by Alexander Pfister and Johannes Krenner and published by Lookout Games, with illustrations by Chris Quilliams.

Here’s what you get in the box:

El Paso features a playmat for a gameboard. This is designed to keep the game lightweight and easy to take with you to play while away from home. The squares are spaces for the neutral building tiles as well as common building tiles. 

Each player gets their own player board. These are used to keep track of earned certificates as well as auxiliary actions the player can take. 

The building board and cattle board are used to keep the building tiles and cattle cards organized and remind players of their cost to purchase. 

The train cards are placed below the playmat and provide an opportunity for players to purchase items such as bonus tiles and objective tiles. Players need engineers to access the train. 

Players start out with four types of cattle. These are not worth any victory points at the end of the game. They can purchase four other types of cattle to add to their herd. The Simmental cattle cards are earned when players stop at El Paso to deliver their herd. The breeding value of each type of cattle is listed at the top and the victory points, if any, are printed at the bottom of the cards. 

There are four types of worker cards that players can use for various tasks. Cowboys are used to purchase cattle from the cattle market. They can also be discarded to move a herder one space farther. Builders are used to construct buildings. They can also be discarded to move the certificate marker down one space for the cost of 2 dollars. Engineers allow players to access the train or can be discarded for 1 dollar each. The Wild Worker card can be used in place of any of the other workers or discarded for 2 dollars. Players begin with one of each of these cards. 

There are two types of building tiles in El Paso. The neutral buildings are placed on the playmat at the start of the game. During the game, players can purchase common buildings by discarding Builder cards and paying money. These are placed on empty spaces on the playmat. The actions on a common building can only be taken by the player who owns them. Other players who stop on a building owned by another player can only take an auxiliary action. 

Objective tiles with the bugle icon can be obtained from the train and provide victory points at the end of the game if the player meets the requirements on them. Bonus tiles can also provide victory points as well as either one time bonus actions or permanent benefits for the player. 

Each player has property markers and a certificate marker in their color as well as 7 discs that begin on the player board. Players can get exchange tokens which when returned to the pool allow them to draw a card to add to their hand and then must discard a card of their choice. These are useful in assembling a hand of cattle to take into El Paso for a high value. 

The herder meeples are use by players to move from building to building as they make their way around the playmat. 

The coin tokens are the money used to purchase things in the game. They come in both $1 and $5 denominations. 

El Paso includes 11 bot cards which are used for playing solo games. 

Since players can score victory points in a number of different ways, the scoring pad helps keep track of the points for each element. 

You can download a copy of the rulebook here.

The goal of the game is to move your herder along a circular trail that keeps bringing you back to El Paso. Along the way perform actions that earn you victory points. At the end of the game, the player with the most victory points is the winner. 

Start off by placing the playmat in the middle of the table. Place the El Paso tile on the El Paso space and the 6 neutral building tiles on the neutral building spaces. Place the four train cards in a line below the playmat. Shuffle the 20 objective and 20 bonus tiles face down and from separate piles near the train. Then draw three tiles from each pile and place them face up in a line next to each pile. Place the exchange tokens and coins  in reach of all players to from the supply called the bank. Place the cattle board near the playmat. Sort the 32 market cattle cards by color and place them face up around the cattle board near their corresponding spaces. Now place the building board near the playmat and put all the common building tiles in stacks around the building board based on their worker costs. Create a worker supply by sorting the 48 worker cards by their type and make four face up piles. Next place a number of Simmental cattle cards on the playmat at the matching space based on the number of players. 

Each player takes a player board and places it in front of them. They then take 1 of each type of worker cards below the player board to form the worker area. After choosing colors, each player takes 7 discs, 2 property markers, 1 certificate marker, and 1 herder in their matching color. Give each player a set of 10 player cattle cards consisting of 4 gray Criollo, 2 black Pineywoods, 2 white Galloway, and 2 green Santa Gertrudis cards. Shuffle this herd deck and place it face down near the player board to form a personal draw stack. Each player then draws four cards form the stack into their hand. 

Determine a start player who chooses one of the face up objective tiles. Replace it and then the next player selects one. Continue until each player has selected an objective tile. Finally each player receives their starting capital of coins and exchange tokens based on their order. You are now ready to start the game. 

Great Western Trail: El Paso is played in turns. During their turn, a player completes a move phase, action phase, and draw phase. Let’s take a look at what occurs during each phase.

On their first turn, a player places their herder on any neutral location with a building except El Paso and then continue to the action phase. Otherwise, you must move the herder along the trail 1-3 steps. Only count spaces with buildings on them as steps. Skip empty spaces. After stopping at a location, go to the action phase. If you move onto El Paso, you must stop there and not continue on to the space. 

For the action phase, if a player stops on a neutral building or a common building with their property marker, they can carry out the actions depicted on the building tile or use one of their auxiliary actions on their player board. If they stop on a common building with another player’s marker, then can only use one auxiliary action and none from the building tile. When on El Paso, a player must complete all of the actions there. There are many types of actions players may take based on where they stop. These include discarding cattle cards for money, gaining money, gaining certificates, gaining exchange tokens, hiring workers, buying cattle from the cattle market, using the train, gaining objective or bonus tokens, placing a building, using axillary actions, moving your herder, gaining cattle, and getting rid of cattle. When stopping in El Paso,  a player takes 5 dollars from the bank, takes on Simmental cattle card and placing it face up in the discard pile, and then reveal their entire hand to deliver cattle. From the hand, determine the breeding value of the cattle adding the breeding value of each unique type of cattle. Duplicate cattle cards do not count. After adding bonuses, the player takes a disc from their player board and place it on a trading post on the playermat on a space equal to or less than the final breeding value. 

During the draw phase, if a player has fewer than four cards in their hand, they draw from the their draw deck until they reach their hand limit. If you draw a worker card from your draw deck, immediately put it in the worker area below your player board. Worker cards are never added to your hand. Continue drawing until you have fours non-worker cards in your hand. 

The end of the game is triggered when a player takes the last Simmental cattle card from the game board. The game then continues until the next player reaches El Paso. Instead of taking a Simmental cattle card, they place their herder in that spot and complete the El Paso actions. Then each other player gets one final turn. Finally the game ends and the scoring takes place. Players earn victory points in a number of ways. They get one victory point for every $5 they have. They also get victory points for the buildings they own, their discs on highlighted trading posts, their worker cards, their cattle cards, the bonus tiles they own and for the objective tiles they have completed. The player with the highest total wins. In case of a tie, it is the player with the most money left after converting them into victory points. 

When I first received El Paso, I was excited to try it out. However, at first I was surprised at some of the components. The use of a playmat instead of a gameboard was one of these. I realized that since the game was meant to be more easily taken while travelling that the playmat was a lighter option and easier to roll up. The large size of the herder meeples which are about an inch tall was unique as was the use of cardboard tokens that are printed to look like wooden discs and cubes. Again, the tokens help keep the game light as well as less expensive. Finally, as I read through the rulebook, it was somewhat difficult for me to follow how the game plays. While visiting the Lookout Games website I found some help and suggest downloading the FAQ from Lookout Games which provides more detailed information on the various components such as the building tiles, the upgrade and bonus tokens, and even the worker cards. This can really help for your first game since there are a lot of symbols which might not be as clear to new players who have not played other games in the Great Western Trail series.

All of my apprehensions vanished once I started to play El Paso. This is truly a game that you learn as you play. As your move your herder to a building tile, there are a couple of actions you can take. If needed, you can look up the symbols to see what to do. By the time your herder makes a complete circuit of the map, you have a good understanding of the gameplay. With each stop in El Paso to deliver my herd, I grew more fond of the game and began to strategize how to win the game. There are lots of ways to earn victory points which are needed to win the game at the end. When delivering a herd at El Paso, you calculate the breeding value of your herd, adding any certificates you have, and then place one of your discs on the playmat. If your total if 10 or more, you can place your disc on spots worth victory points with the highest earning 14 victory points for a breeding value of 20 or greater. You increase your breeding value by having different types of cattle in your hand when you arrive at El Paso. In addition, constructing buildings not only earns victory points but also provides useful actions that only you can take. Though you can only have two owned buildings at a time, you can upgrade your current buildings to more valuable buildings with better actions. While the cattle you begin with in your deck are not worth victory points, you can purchase cattle at the cattle market which have higher breeding values and are worth victory points. Finally, be sure to visit the train to get bonus and objective tokens to give you a boost as well as provide victory points. Though it seems like there is a lot going on, you do this all one turn at a time taking only one or two actions at the buildings where you stop. 

By the time I finished by first game, I really enjoyed playing El Paso. Next I tried a solo game with the bot cards. The rules are included on the last two pages of the game manual and are easy to follow. The bot provides a challenge to the player and bot cards keep the game moving quickly since the bot player does what it says on these cards rather than take actions at specific buildings. I like how the game moves quickly. When it is your turn, you just move your herder, do the actions at the building, and then draw cards to fill your hand if needed. While other players are taking their turns, you can be planning ahead which building you will move to next and what actions you will take. As a result there is little down time, especially once everyone has learned the game. I found the best way to teach this game is to just get a game started and teach as you go. Have new players stop at each neutral building along the way and learn the actions as they come to them. As I mentioned earlier, by the time they get to El Paso, they will have a good understanding of the rules.

Whether playing solo or with other players, I have always had a good time and enjoyed playing El Paso. While I was unsure about some of the components at first, they work and they did not have any detrimental effect on gameplay. In addition to the gameplay, I liked the art on the components and enjoyed the theme. I felt like I was moving a herd of cattle across Texas and Mexico, stopping along the way to improve the herd and earn some money and bonuses along the way while hiring workers to help me. Plus once players have learned how to play, a game usually lasts about an hour or a bit longer with four players making it great for playing several times during a game night or as one of the games for the evening. After playing several games and enjoy it each tie, I recommend El Paso as a great game to add to your collection. 

For more information , visit the Great Western Trail: El Paso page!

Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.

Source: geekdad.com