I have had a passing interest in the Great Western Trail series for a while now. I have even tried it a few times on Board Game Arena. For some reason, I don’t know why, it has not really gelled with me. I suspect a game in real person would fix that. It just felt too busy and fragmented using BGA and playing asynchronously.
Skip forward to me being sent a copy of Great Western Trail: El Paso, a lighter, quicker version of Great Western Trail that takes up less table and can be enjoyed by all. Colour me intrigued! Grab your cowboy, rustle a few cattle and let’s do this!
The Setup
Setup up in El Paso, while not being too intensive, is not lightning fast either. Yes it’s not as heavy as its bigger sibling but you still have tiles, cards and various markets to populate. Along with that you have player areas and components to dish out. While it’s not trivial, I definitely think the setup time and effort is worth it. It’s not one of those games where you dread setting it up as the game does not warrant it’s setup time.
Rondels, Buildings and Herder Movement
In El Paso, as with the other games in the series, the board is a massive rondel, of sorts. It’s a circuit that players will be moving their herder around, taking various actions depending on where their herder lands. The rondel starts out with only a few buildings on it, granting basic actions and the players gradually increase the options and buildings available over the course of the game.
The board is smaller than the other games and even though I have not played much of the other games, it does not seem, at least in my humble opinion, that much is lost by the smaller size. Yes your options are probably more limited but in a shorter, lighter game, you would expect that.
Cattle, Deck Building and El Paso
The main mechanic in El Paso, as with all GWT games is building a hand of cards, in this case cattle. You start with a hand size of 4 cards and at the end of each lap, when you get to El Paso, your cattle score is calculated. You get the score from each of the unique cattle cards in your hand. You start with a pretty bland deck of cattle to be honest and your job is to get more cattle cards, get rid of duplicates and discard each cycle to make your hand better.
I adore this mechanic. Each lap through to El Paso is a puzzle of which building to visit and working out how to maximise your cattle score is always interesting. Each time you tot up your cattle score you can cover a trading post with one of your discs and get either a bonus, end game points and at the higher scores, a permanent upgrade on your player board. I find this whole system rewarding and very satisfying. (I do love deck-building though)
Workers, Bonus and Objective Tiles
One of the games actions you can take is hiring a worker, of which there are 4 types. Unlike the bigger counterparts though these take the form of cards which cycle through your deck, like the cattle. They are needed to build buildings, buy new, better cattle cards or using the train. They can also be used for small boons if you discard them. The thing I found clever though is that they are not lost forever but are shuffled back into your deck. Meaning you can get a nice little army of workers together.
I am not sure if I prefer this version to the bigger games, I would have to play the other versions again for a true comparison. I do feel though this system is simpler and easier for new players to get to grips with.
At the start of the game and by landing on certain buildings, you gain objective tiles. You know the sort, 6 points of you build certain buildings, 5 points of you have certain cattle, that kind of jazz. These objectives can give you quite a boost in end game scoring and picking the right one when it’s in the market, depending on your approach to the game is vital.
The other type of tiles available is the bonus tile. This tile gives you small bonuses and one off actions to help you get better cattle scores or get you cash. Managing both these tile types is key to winning. I thought the variation in objective tiles was adequate and the bonus tiles, no matter what they did, were always helpful.
Components
With its lower price point and entry level difficulty, I did expect a drop in component quality. While the component quality is good, there is a lot of cardboard and the player boards are quite thin. I thought the playing card quality was good and the inclusion of little tuck boxes for the smaller components is a nice addition. This comes from someone who gets rid of most of their baggies and has little boxes in most of their games, so take from that what you will.
Yes, the component quality is lesser than higher prices game and even games int he same series but the price is lower and the component quality is by no means poor. It’s perfectly serviceable and adequate fits the money you will pay for the game.
In Conclusion
After not really gelling with the Great Western Trail games, I found that my enjoyment for El Paso was two fold. On the first hand I found it a lot easier to get into, a lot easier to understand and very enjoyable throughout. On the other hand, it has introduced me to the main systems of the GWT series and has me chomping at the bit to once again tread the boards of its bigger siblings.
While I think players of the main GWT series of games will find this to be too simple, too cut-down and a definite downgrade. I feel newer players and players who enjoy a lighter game will definitely find something to enjoy here. I definitely did and it has laid the way for me to see the Great Western Trail series with new eyes, with new ambition and a greater understanding of the core mechanics. Right, I’m off to rustle some cattle and build some buildings. See you in El Paso gamers!
