Great Western Trail

Each turn consists of movement, actions at the destination, then drawing up to your hand limit. On your first turn, start directly at any neutral building. Subsequently move forward along the arrows at least one step and no farther than your step limit. Each tiled location costs one step, empty spaces cost none, and Kansas City is a mandatory stop.

Pay hand-symbol fees when entering or passing a location: pay an opposing building’s owner, or the bank for hazards and teepees. Green/black hands cost $2/$2 with two players, $2/$1 with three, and $1/$2 with four. Only these fees allow you to pay what you have and continue; all other costs must be paid in full.

At a neutral or your own building, perform each available local action once, or forgo all local actions for one unlocked single auxiliary action. At an opposing building, hazard or teepee, only a single auxiliary action is available; stopping does not automatically collect its tile.

Pay to hire cowboys, craftsmen or engineers from the job market, excluding the row containing its token. Cowboys and money determine cattle purchases, with new cards entering your discard pile. Craftsmen determine construction requirements and costs; replacing your own building uses the difference in craftsmen required. Engineers support forward locomotive movement.

Each player starts with 14 cattle cards and a four-card hand limit, expandable to six. Refill only at turn end; shuffle your discard pile only when you need to draw and your draw stack is empty. In Kansas City, first move one tile from each of the three foresight groups to its section. Reveal your hand, count each distinct breed once, add permanent certificates and any temporary certificates you choose to spend, collect that many dollars, then discard your entire hand.

Choose a delivery city whose value does not exceed that total breeding value. You normally cannot revisit a city containing your disc; Kansas City and San Francisco are exceptions. Move a disc from your player board to the city, unlocking its former space while observing corner restrictions and additional costs. Green-arrow rewards and points require your discs on both adjacent cities.

After delivery, pay $1 per railroad cross between your locomotive’s nose and the city; delivery is free if the locomotive has reached or passed it. Stopping at a station turnout permits a paid upgrade and disc placement; only when upgrading may you also leave the rightmost hired worker of one of your worker rows to take an available station master tile. After delivery, return the cattleman to the start, refill foresight spaces, then refill your hand.

Placing a worker in Kansas City that pushes the job market token beyond its final space triggers the end. Finish that turn, then every other player takes one final turn. Score 1 VP per $5, buildings, cities, stations, hazards, cattle, objectives and station master bonuses, among other categories. Workers in the fifth/sixth row spaces score 4 VP each, the relevant unlocked space scores 3 VP, and the end-trigger token scores 2 VP. Played objectives must score, including printed penalties for failure; objectives still in your deck may be omitted. Highest total wins; ties share victory.