Great Western Trail has spawned an expansion, a 2nd edition and 2 new versions that slightly increase the complexity of Alexander Pfister’s deck building, rondel traversing classic. Whilst Great Western Trail: Argentina and Great Western Trail: New Zealand built upon the formula, Great Western Trail: El Paso takes the opposite approach, distilling the GWT magic into a simpler, more accessible package. Let’s see if the lightest game in the series has enough to stand out from the Great Western Trail herd.
A Rapid Rondel
Great Western Trail: El Paso‘s lineage is clear from the moment the game starts. Players move around the board, manipulating their hand of cattle, in order to have the best possible hand of unique cows when they reach El Paso. The better the delivery, the higher the position on which they get to place one of their discs for better bonuses or end game points. They then add a Simmental cow to their deck and set off on the journey once more. This repeated until the game ends when the stack of Simmental cows empties.
Great Western Trail has spawned an expansion, a 2nd edition and 2 new versions that slightly increase the complexity of Alexander Pfister’s deck building, rondel traversing classic. Whilst Great Western Trail: Argentina and Great Western Trail: New Zealand built upon the formula, Great Western Trail: El Paso takes the opposite approach, distilling the GWT magic into a simpler, more accessible package. Let’s see if the lightest game in the series has enough to stand out from the Great Western Trail herd.
A Rapid Rondel
Great Western Trail: El Paso‘s lineage is clear from the moment the game starts. Players move around the board, manipulating their hand of cattle, in order to have the best possible hand of unique cows when they reach El Paso. The better the delivery, the higher the position on which they get to place one of their discs for better bonuses or end game points. They then add a Simmental cow to their deck and set off on the journey once more. This repeated until the game ends when the stack of Simmental cows empties.
Placing discs will unlock better actions, faster movement or a larger hand size for the players, increasing their ability to deliver improved quality hands of cattle to El Paso. Players can also build buildings, add new and improved cattle to their decks and activate the actions on the train. All of these are done using workers, more of which can be purchased and added to players’ supplies.
All of this will be familiar to Great Western Trail players. The actions and options in El Paso are similar, in many cases simpler, versions of those in the original game. A strength of Great Western Trail: El Paso is that it does feel like Great Western Trail and plays in a much quicker time.
Hard Work
How workers operate is a big change from the original game. No longer card chits, the workers are now cards, like the cattle. They sit in players’ play areas according to category (cowboys, engineers, builders and wild cards) and the more you have of a particular type, the more powerful options you have for the associated action… provided you’ve also enough coins to pay for it.
Once used, the workers go into your discard pile, only to return to your play area when they are next drawn from your deck. Players then redraw until they have a hand of just cattle cards, so there is no detriment to drawing workers.
This system does introduce a random element that some could find frustrating. It could be that you don’t draw the workers you need by the time to reach the associated building on the trail, thus taking a less powerful action as a result. Personally, I find the game to be light and quick enough that a bit of randomness does not bother me, but it is something to be aware of.
The other option players have with the workers is to discard them from play during their turn for a minor bonus. Ditch a cowboy to move an extra space. An engineer for an extra coin. A builder to purchase a certificate, or a wild worker for 2 coins. This is a nice touch and allows players a bit more flexibility when it comes to planning their turns.
Cattle Are King
A large part of Great Western Trail strategy has always been about building a quality cattle deck and delivering the best possible sets of cows at the end of the trail. This emphasis is even greater in Great Western Trail: El Paso and players must pay attention to developing their deck.
Yes, points are available from building buildings; players are limited to two, which can be upgraded and built over. Bonuses and end game points are available from taking the train action too. However, these pale in comparison to the points available from investing in cowboys and using them to add the best possible cow cards to your deck.
Is this an issue? I’m not sure and it depends on player preference. On the one hand, this is a lighter version of the GWT experience and the main part of that is delivering cows. In this context, making working towards that the most viable option makes sense and the game is right to guide players towards this.
On the other hand, more experienced GWT players will be used to trying to explore different strategies and may be disappointed to find that less viable here.
Cattle Quality Control
The production of Great Western Trail: El Paso is a bit of a mixed bag. There is no game ‘board’ present here. Instead, there is a cloth mat. It looks good on the table and does help the game fit into a small box, but players may wish to iron the reverse to smooth out initial creases. I haven’t and it works fine, but there are fold lines.
The cowboy meeples are enormous. They are big, chunky things that look great, though they can obscure some of the building action details if several happen to have stopped on the same building.
The cards are mini size and are of decent quality. Shuffling smaller cards can be a bit more fiddly, though I’m happy with them overall and they are holding up well to repeated plays.
The player mats are thin card, but are at least nice and clear.
Where the production falls down is with the discs and ‘cubes’. Whereas in the other GWT games you get wooden discs and wooden cubes included, here they are instead small card chits to represent the same.
Indeed, the chits are even highlighted to give the impression of wooden disc and cubes. Why could a few wooden components not have been included? These card pieces unfortunately cheapen the appearance of the game.
There are also a couple of errata for the game. Players may only remove 5 cows at most from their decks and one of the buildings should be marked with the icon for “or” rather than “and”. It means players need to choose, rather than taking both actions on it. Both of these clarifications are on the Lookout Games website.
One for Lone Rangers?
Great Western Trail: El Paso does have a solo mode. The opponent, Sue, is controlled by a deck of cards that determine her actions.
The system is well put together and smooth and easy to operate. It allows players to play and enjoy the game solo… provided they do not care about winning.
Even on the easiest difficulty, I have found the solo mode nearly impossible to win. The systems put in place for Sue, to necessitate ease of play, also cause her to escalate in power rapidly as the game continues. Sue never discards worker cards, with the result that her journey round the rondel gathers pace and she is soon adding the finest cattle to her deck.
Players are incentivised in turn to complete the circuits as fast as possible and finish the game before Sue picks up too many points.
I still play the game solo, but I treat it as ‘beat your own score’ and no longer add up Sue’s points, instead using her as a timer for the game.
Sirloin Steak or an Off-cut?
I’m not sure where I come down on El Paso. I think it broadly speaking does what it sets out to and provides a Great Western Trail experience in a much shorter time. The use of the worker cards is a good variation and the game is fun multiplayer and suitable for less experienced gamers. There is still a fair bit going on though, and I would not call El Paso a ‘gateway game’.
It is a fun multiplayer game, provided players go into it knowing where the emphasis of their strategy needs to be. Elements of what is so enjoyable about Great Western Trail are present here.
Some of the production choices were a miss step. After market wooden discs and cubes are available very cheaply, but that shouldn’t have been a decision owners of El Paso are faced with.
Whilst I will still play it solo, the solo mode could have done with further development, since it is far too difficult as it stands.
Great Western Trail: El Paso is a good game, despite its faults, though I wouldn’t choose to play it over one of the other versions of Great Western Trail, were time no object. Production faults and strategic limitations leave El Paso as a good trail, rather than a great one.
About the author:
When not reviewing board games, Graham is teaching maths, running a games club and failing to convince his students that baseball is the greatest sport ever invented. You can read his thoughts and opinions on all things board game on his blog, GrahamS Games. You can find him on BlueSky, where he will invariably be wittering on about whichever game has currently captured his attention: https://bsky.app/profile/grahamsgames.bsky.social.
Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
70%
