Great Western Trail
178 questions players ask about Great Western Trail, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-25.
178 questions players ask about Great Western Trail, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-25.
The rulebook's setup step 13 has every player copy one randomized layout, and the designer has said the two sides were not balanced against each other.
Mixing is allowed, but everyone must use the same layout. Once you know the game, one player randomizes the side of each of her 10 tiles and every other player flips theirs to match. Nobody may choose sides independently or flip a tile later. The designer says the A and B sides were never balanced against each other, which is why everyone has to share the same set.
“We did not try to balance A vs B side.”
— AlexP, designer
The designer confirmed this, and it matches the rulebook's Phase A text.
On any neutral building tile you like, including the one closest to Kansas City and one other players are already on. Then go straight to phase B and use it. There's no phase A movement that turn. You can't start on Kansas City, a private building or a hazard. After your first visit to Kansas City you always restart from the trail's start space.
The rulebook's setup and Kansas City rules spell out which columns are used for each player count.
Two columns with 2 players and three with 3 players. Each row starts under your player-count sign, and the unused left columns stay empty for the whole game. That holds at setup and every time a worker is added later. Filling every column at low player counts makes the game run much longer than intended.
The rulebook's setup steps 6 to 8 give these numbers.
Reveal tiles with a 1 on the back (teepees and hazards) until 7 are on the board. Then reveal 2 tiles (all workers) into the job market until you fill the space left of the job market token: 3 workers with 2 players, 5 with 3 players and 7 with 4 players. Finally, put two 3 tiles on each of the three foresight spots. From then on, new tiles only come out through Kansas City.
The rulebook's setup uses every tile regardless of player count.
No. All 54 workers, 22 teepees and 18 hazards go into the Kansas City supply at every player count. Fewer workers enter play at lower counts only because fewer job market columns are used. Cutting tiles is a fan variant.
Setup step 17 sets the starting money, and the turn structure has no per-turn income.
The start player gets $6 and each later seat $1 more: $7, $8, then $9. That's the only free money. There's no income per turn. You earn money from actions and from delivering in Kansas City. What you do get every turn is a refill of your hand to your hand limit, which starts at 4.
Setup step 16 says to return spare starting objective cards to the box.
They go back in the box. They are never shuffled into the objective stack.
The rulebook's hiring rules note that the first space of each row is already filled.
Yes. The first space of each worker row on your player board shows a printed worker, so you begin with one of each type. Hired workers go to the leftmost free space after them.
Setup step 3 places the shuffled tiles onto the 7 neutral spaces.
No. They still go only on the 7 neutral spaces. Random setup just shuffles which lettered building lands on which neutral space, instead of matching letters A to G.
Several players who own both editions list the same differences; there's no official comparison.
Several, so don't mix rulebooks. In the first edition:
The second edition also changed starting hands and some artwork.
The rulebook defines a location and says each one takes one step.
Tiles count and empty spaces don't. Every tile on a trail space is a location and costs one step: buildings, hazards and teepees. Four hazards in a row use four steps. Empty building spaces, and empty spaces with a risk action printed next to them, aren't locations and are skipped for free.
The rulebook's movement rules charge the fee for moving to or passing over such a location.
Yes. You pay the fee for every green or black hand you move onto or pass over, not just where you stop. You also don't have to stop at a toll. Pay it and keep moving.
The rulebook states this exception explicitly, with a worked example.
You can still take that path. Pay each hand in the order you reach it until your money runs out, then keep moving for free. You never pay missed fees later, even if you gain money while still on that location. This leniency covers only hand fees. Every other cost in the game must be paid in full.
The designer answered this directly, and the rulebook only charges fees for other players' buildings.
No. You never pay for green or black hands on your own buildings, whether you pass them or stop there. Hands on another player's building are paid to that player.
The rulebook lists the fee per hand colour and player count and says who receives it.
The colour only sets the price, and the price depends on player count:
Who gets paid depends on the tile. Hazards and teepees pay the bank, and another player's building pays that player. A location with both hands costs both fees added together.
The designer ruled this in 2016 and again in 2024.
Yes. Treat it like normal movement and take the steps one at a time. You pay for every hand you pass over or stop on. Only the objective cards' move of up to 3 steps ignores hands, because its text says so.
The rulebook says you must always move forward in the direction of the arrows.
No. Movement always follows the arrows toward Kansas City. Where the trail forks, you pick a branch, but you can never go back.
The rulebook's Phase B rules allow only a single auxiliary action on these tiles.
No. Moving past or onto a hazard or teepee only costs its hand fee. If you stop there, all you can do is one single auxiliary action. You collect hazards only with a remove-a-hazard action and teepees only with a trade-with-the-Indians action. Some worker spaces and station master tiles offer these too.
One experienced player answered, and it follows from where the tiles sit; no official ruling.
No. Teepees on the trade section's off-trail spaces aren't on any path, so you can't pass or land on them, and their hands never apply. Only teepees placed on the trail charge fees.
The designer endorsed this summary in 2017; it fits the rulebook's Phase B structure.
Yes, you have to use it. Take the location's local actions or one single auxiliary action. Rewards can always be forfeited, though, so taking an action and declining its reward is legal. The designer endorsed a player's summary saying you must do something where you end. In practice, the $1 auxiliary action is always available.
The rulebook's Phase B rules say this directly.
No. Only the owner can use a private building's local actions, including any risk action attached to its space. On another player's building, or on a hazard or teepee, you get one single auxiliary action and nothing else.
The rulebook says an auxiliary action used instead of local actions can never be doubled.
No. An auxiliary action taken in place of a location's actions is always single, even if both disc spaces of that action are cleared. The only way to double one is through an action that shows the single-or-double auxiliary icon, such as a local action on some buildings or an objective card's immediate action.
The rulebook treats the printed icon as a local action, and you may perform each local action once.
Yes. When the single-or-double auxiliary icon is printed on a building, it's one of that building's local actions. You can do it alongside the other actions, in any order. Only the fallback single auxiliary action replaces a building's actions.
The designer confirmed the double is the same action with doubled requirement and reward, as the rulebook says.
No. You pick one unlocked auxiliary action, and the double version doubles that action's requirement and reward. It's one action done bigger, not two actions. You can't take $1 and also draw and discard. The double $1 action gives $2 in total.
The designer ruled that the double is doubled, not done twice.
No. The double moves the full doubled distance as a single movement. You upgrade only at the space where the movement ends. With a forward move you may stop early, but stopping ends the action and forfeits the rest. With a backward move you must go the full two spaces.
The rulebook words the double action as draw 2, then discard 2.
Yes. Draw 2, then discard 2. You can't draw one, look at it and then decide on the second. You may discard any cards in your hand, including the ones you just drew. If you only want one card, use the single version.
Yes. Drawing and discarding are both part of the action, so if you take it you do both. The discard can be any card in your hand, including the one you just drew.
The rulebook ties single and double use to how many of the action's disc spaces are cleared.
Yes, but you get the single version. A double needs both disc spaces cleared. With just one cleared, the double icon lets you perform that action once.
The rulebook's wording makes the double optional.
Yes. The rules say you may use it as a double, so a single is always allowed.
The rulebook unlocks an auxiliary action once either of its two disc spaces is cleared.
No. Clearing either one unlocks the single action, and clearing both unlocks the double. The icons refer to single and double use, not to a left or right side.
The rulebook's Phase B section says local actions may be done in any order.
Yes. You may do each local action once, in any order, and skip any of them. Money or cards you gain from one action can pay for the next.
Several players agree, based on the any-order rule; no official ruling.
Yes. Do the engine move first. If you stop on a station and upgrade it with a disc from an auxiliary space, the auxiliary action you just unlocked is available for G's other local action. It's even available as a double if both of its spaces are now clear.
The rulebook's Phase B section says the risk action becomes part of the tile's local actions for its owner.
Not when you build. Once one of your buildings sits on that space, the risk action becomes one of that building's local actions. You can use it every time you stop there and use the building. Only you can use it. Opponents stopping there still get just a single auxiliary action. If you take the fallback single auxiliary action instead, you skip the risk action along with the building's other actions.
The designer ruled on this case in 2016, consistent with the rulebook's requirement and reward rules.
Yes, as long as you pay the cost in full. Paying $1 and moving one space back is the requirement, and the certificate is the reward. You may decline the reward, for example when your certificates are maxed. The designer confirmed you may skip any reward except money. You can't use the action if your engine is on the starting space, and the double version costs $2 and two spaces.
The designer ruled on this directly, matching the rulebook's General notes.
You can forfeit any reward fully or partly, except money. A dollar reward must always be taken in full. The designer explains why: otherwise players could turn down cash to avoid paying an opponent's hand fees.
“Yes, you may neglect any bonus with one exception: money (this is because moving may cost you money to opponents)”
— AlexP, designer
The rulebook's General notes allow forfeiting rewards after meeting the requirement, except money.
Yes. You may meet a requirement and forfeit the reward entirely or in part. This is a legal way to cycle a card out of your hand. Any money in the reward still has to be taken. For "discard a Jersey: certificate + $2" with certificates full, you discard and take the $2.
The rulebook's General notes give this exact discard example.
No. Both the certificate and the $2 are rewards for discarding the Jersey. Without the discard you get neither. Rewards drawn as separate actions are split by a divider, while a plus joins them into one reward. The same goes for worker-space bonuses: no matching card in hand, no bonus.
The rulebook says a specific card is shown by its colour and breeding value.
Yes. An icon showing one colour and breeding value needs exactly that breed from your hand. Only the multicoloured "any type" icon accepts any cattle card.
The rulebook's example asks for two cattle cards of the same type.
No. Both cards must be the same breed (colour), such as two Black Angus. A Black Angus and a Dutch Belt don't qualify, even though both are worth 2. Different victory points on two cards of the same breed don't matter.
The rulebook doubles the requirement for a double action and lets you forfeit rewards in part.
No, but you must pay the whole doubled requirement. For the double card-removal action, you must move your engine back 2 spaces, but you may remove just 1 card. As always, money rewards are taken in full.
The rulebook requires all five Kansas City subphases in succession.
Yes. When your cattleman reaches Kansas City, its movement ends there. In that same turn you carry out all five subphases in order: three foresight picks, income, then delivery. Then you move your cattleman to the start of the trail, refill the foresight spaces and draw up in phase C. None of the subphases can be skipped.
The rulebook's Kansas City rules say where each tile type goes.
No. Only workers go into the job market. A teepee goes to the empty Indian trade space with the lowest money value. A hazard goes to the lowest-numbered empty space of its own hazard section on the trail.
The rulebook says tiles with no empty space are returned to the box.
It goes back to the box and you move on to the next subphase. You may choose that tile deliberately, even when the other option could have been placed, which is a way to keep tiles off the trail. It can't replace a tile already on the board, and you don't draw a substitute. The empty foresight space refills normally at the end of your turn.
The rulebook's Kansas City rules say tiles always go in the token's row, left to right.
Only into the row holding the job market token, filled left to right and starting under your player-count sign. The token's own space is filled last. Placing a worker there moves the token down to the next row. Gaps left in earlier rows by hired workers are never refilled. Filling them by mistake stalls the token, and the game drags on far too long.
Several players agree, and the rulebook only says the 2 tiles are all workers; no official ruling.
No, it's intentional. The rulebook only promises that the tiles with a 2 on the back are all workers. The 3 pile also contains teepees, so not everything in the foresight spaces will be a worker.
The rulebook's Income rules count each type of cattle only once.
No. Each breed in your hand counts once, however many copies you hold. Three Jerseys count as 1, and two Texas Longhorns count as 5. To raise the total you need different breeds, plus any certificates you add.
The rulebook's Delivery rules limit you to cities whose value is at most your total breeding value.
Yes. Your total breeding value (different breeds plus the certificates you use) is both your income and the highest city value you may choose. Your engine's position only affects transport costs, not which city you may pick. You can't pay extra money to reach a higher city.
The rulebook takes income in the Income subphase, before Delivery.
No. You collect your full breeding value as income before choosing a city. Delivering below your value doesn't reduce the money. A value of 14 pays $14 whether you deliver to a 14 city or a lower one.
The rulebook's Income rules let you use as many temporary certificates as you want.
No. Use as many as you like, from none to all, and move your certificate marker back by that many. The rest are saved for later deliveries. Permanent certificates from station master tiles always apply automatically. Spending every certificate on every visit is a common mistake.
Several players agree, reading the track as printed; no official ruling.
No. The track has no 5 space, so it jumps from 4 to 6. Coming off 6 means dropping to 4 and spending two. Using three takes you to 3.
The rulebook's Delivery rules name Kansas City and San Francisco as the only exceptions.
Only Kansas City and San Francisco. Every other city takes at most one of your discs, so once you've delivered there it's closed to you. Other players can still deliver to a city where you have a disc.
Yes. Each delivery adds another disc, and each disc scores its own reward or penalty. Every Kansas City disc pays $6 when placed and costs 6 VP at the end. Every San Francisco disc scores its victory points, but you need a breeding value of at least 18 each time.
The designer confirmed this, and the rulebook makes all five Kansas City subphases mandatory.
Yes. Delivery is a mandatory subphase. If every city your breeding value reaches already has your disc, you must deliver to Kansas City and take the -6 VP. The designer says this is meant to put pressure on you.
The designer ruled on this in 2016, and the rulebook's subphase order puts income before delivery.
Yes. Income comes first, and you only set it aside so you remember your breeding value. You can then spend it on transport costs and the $5 disc fee. The designer adds that even if your only disc left costs $5, you can always pay. Delivering to Kansas City gives $6 on top of your income.
The designer stated in 2019 that only hand fees may be paid partially and that you can always deliver to Kansas City.
Then you can't deliver there. Pick a city you can pay for. Transport costs, like every cost except hand fees, must be paid in full. Kansas City never has transport costs, so a delivery is always possible. Ordinarily your income covers the transport anyway, since you collect it first.
The rulebook's Delivery rules and example count crosses from the engine's nose to the city.
Pay $1 for each red cross on the track between your engine's nose and the city's value marker. What counts is where the engine is now. If it moved back since an earlier delivery, you pay again for crosses now in front of it. If the engine is beneath or past the city, the delivery is free. Sitting one space short, with a cross in between, still costs $1.
The rulebook lets you deliver to any eligible city and charges nothing when the engine is past it.
Yes. Any city whose value your breeding value reaches is allowed, as long as you haven't delivered there before. If your engine is past it, there are no transport costs.
Several players agree, and nothing in the delivery rules moves the engine; no official ruling.
No. Delivering never moves your engine. It stays where it is and only sets the transport cost. Engines move only through engine-movement actions.
The rulebook's Delivery rules cover single and double triggers.
A green arrow triggers the moment both cities it connects hold one of your discs. An action arrow, such as taking an objective card, happens right then and is mandatory. A VP arrow scores at game end. If one disc completes two arrows at once, for example a middle city whose two neighbours already have your discs, you perform both actions, refilling the objective display in between.
The rulebook points the delivery action to the standard objective action, which allows either choice.
Yes. The arrow uses the normal gain-an-objective action, which lets you take a face-up card from the display or draw blind from the stack. Either way, the card goes onto your discard pile.
The rulebook's Income rules discard your entire hand.
They're discarded with the rest of your hand. They add no breeding value, and revealing one in Kansas City doesn't count as playing it. It comes back into your deck when you reshuffle. If you want it in your objective area, play it before you reach Kansas City.
The rulebook's Income rules discard your hand to your personal discard pile.
They go to your discard pile, not out of the game. They come back when you reshuffle, so your herd keeps cycling.
The rulebook's Delivery rules place the disc on a city space.
No. A Kansas City delivery always puts a disc on a city crest. Stations get discs only when you upgrade them, usually by stopping your engine on their turnout. Building 9b, and moving back after reaching space 39, are the other ways.
The rulebook's Delivery rules define which discs may go on which spaces.
A disc from a white-cornered space can go on any city or station. A disc from a dark-cornered space can only go on a dark-cornered city or station, such as Albuquerque or El Paso. So delivering to Kansas City, which has white corners, normally can't clear a dark-cornered space. That includes the hand-limit and step-limit spaces.
The designer quoted and confirmed this special case, which is printed in the rulebook.
Then you may place a dark-cornered disc on the white-cornered space. If it's one of the $5 hand-limit discs, you still pay the $5. This exception applies only once every white-cornered disc is gone.
The designer and the publisher both ruled on this, matching the rulebook's special cases.
Take one of your discs back from a train station of your choice and place it instead. For a Kansas City delivery you must do this. For a station upgrade it's optional. The station you took it from no longer scores for you at game end. This also applies when your only discs left are the $5 ones and you can't pay.
The designer confirmed that discs are never removed from a city.
No. Discs on cities never move. A replacement disc can only come from one of your upgraded train stations. Placed discs also can't be shifted from a city to a station later.
The publisher clarified that being unable to pay the $5 counts as having no usable disc, consistent with the rulebook.
Then choose a different disc to place. If no other disc is available, you count as unable to place one. In that case take a disc from one of your train stations instead.
The rulebook's Delivery rules describe the hand-limit spaces and their $5 cost.
Clear the two hand-limit disc spaces. Each raises your hand limit by one, up to 6, and costs $5 to the bank when you take its disc. Both have dark corners, so they normally need a dark-cornered city or station. The $5 is paid once, when the disc leaves your board.
The rulebook states this order requirement explicitly.
No. Your temporary certificate limit stays at 3 until the 4-certificate space is also cleared. Only then can the marker go to 4 and on to 6.
Several players agree, and the rulebook sets an order only for the certificate spaces; no official ruling.
No. You may clear the two step-limit spaces, and the other dark-cornered bonus spaces, in any order. The certificate pair can be cleared in any order too, but the 6-certificate space does nothing until the 4-certificate space is also clear. Your step limit rises by whatever the cleared spaces show, and the space that pays $3 pays it immediately.
The rulebook's turn structure ends every turn with Phase C.
Every turn. Phase C, drawing back up to your hand limit, ends every turn, not just Kansas City visits. You never refill in the middle of a turn: not between actions, after removing cards, or before a building's extra move.
The rulebook says you don't replenish your hand before performing phase B again.
No. You're still in phase B, so you arrive with whatever cards are left. Any cards you discarded or played earlier in the turn are missing from the delivery. Building moves are optional, so you can skip one and refill normally at the end of your turn.
The rulebook's special cases state this directly.
Your discard pile, yes, at any time. Your draw stack, never. Letting players look through their deck is only a house rule.
The rulebook's herd-deck section sets out this rule.
Only when you need to draw a card and your draw stack is empty. Kansas City doesn't trigger a reshuffle, and neither does emptying the stack with your last draw. When the time comes, shuffle the whole discard pile thoroughly to form your new draw stack.
The rulebook's Income rules have you reveal your hand, which implies it's otherwise hidden.
Yes. Your hand stays hidden. You reveal it only during the Income subphase in Kansas City.
The rulebook lists this auxiliary action and its requirement.
Use the bottom auxiliary action. Move your engine back one space and return a card from your hand to the box. The double version moves back two spaces and removes two cards, both of which must be in hand. Base-game buildings don't do this, but the auxiliary action can be among the first you unlock. In the first edition it pays no $1, and your engine can't be on the starting space. You draw back up only at the end of your turn.
The rulebook's wording says the action removes one of your hand cards.
Yes, if it's in your hand. The action removes any hand card, so an unwanted objective card can go. Objective cards already played to your objective area are no longer hand cards and can't be removed.
The rulebook sends bought cattle and gained objective cards to the discard pile.
No. Bought cattle and most gained objective cards go straight to your discard pile, not your hand. Draw-and-discard effects push you over the limit only for a moment, since you discard as many as you drew. Building 6b is the exception: it puts its objective card directly into your hand.
The rulebook's hiring rules forbid it outright.
No. Workers in the token's row can't be hired until the token moves on to the next row. You hire only from rows above it. Ignoring this is one of the most common reasons games run far too long.
The designer gave an official answer in 2020 that corrects the printed rules' wording.
Yes. The two hire actions are separate local actions, so you can take either or both, in any order. The designer said to ignore the printed rules' phrase "once more" about the second hire, because it contradicts the building's icons.
“Official answer: Ignore the "once more" phrase in the rules, because otherwise the building iconography would not be correct.”
— AlexP, designer
The designer confirmed this in 2019.
Yes. Nobody is forced to hire the cheapest worker of a type, so you may pay more for one from a pricier row.
The rulebook's note on building B describes the cheaper craftsman-row build.
When you place your 4th or 6th craftsman, you may immediately place or upgrade a private building for $1 per craftsman instead of the usual $2. You need the usual number of craftsmen, counting the one just hired. Use it at once or lose it.
Several players agree, based on the rule that immediate actions are taken immediately; no official ruling.
No. Each worker's immediate action fires as soon as that worker is placed, so it counts only the craftsmen you have at that moment. If your 4th craftsman's build happens before the 5th arrives, it can place at most a 4-craftsman building, or upgrade a building by 4.
Several players agree on how the player board icons read; no official ruling.
Most engineer spaces ask you to discard a Jersey from your hand for a reward, such as a certificate step or money. With no Jersey in hand you can still hire the engineer, but you get no bonus. The 4th engineer's space lets you hire one more worker for $2 less than its row price. It's a discount on a separate hire, not $2 in cash, and it doesn't stack with the +$2 of building A's second hire.
Several players agree, correcting a common misreading of the icons; no official ruling.
The 4th cowboy lets you take one hazard tile. The 6th lets you take one teepee of either colour. You pay or receive the money shown above the space you took it from, as in a normal trade with the Indians.
The rulebook's station master rules say this directly.
Yes. Nothing tracks whether a space was used before. The next worker you place on an uncovered space triggers its immediate action again.
The rulebook's building rules describe replacement and the fate of the old tile.
The new tile must need more craftsmen than the one it replaces. You only need the difference in craftsmen, and you pay only for that difference: $2 each with building B, $1 each with the craftsman-row bonus. The old tile goes back to the box for good. It can't be built again and doesn't score. You may replace a building even if cattlemen are standing on it.
The rulebook's replacement rule needs only the difference in craftsmen, and the craftsman row has 6 spaces.
Only by replacing one of your buildings already on the board. Your craftsman row tops out at 6, so a tile needing 7 or more can only go on top of a smaller one, using the difference rule. Upgrading a 3 to a 9, for example, needs 6 craftsmen. That's also why you'll never have all 10 buildings out at once.
You keep the old building's remaining actions, but get nothing from the new tile this turn. That covers, for example, an upgrade with the craftsman bonus while hiring on 5a. The first-edition rules didn't cover this case. The designer suggested finishing the old building's actions in 2016–17 and ruled it firmly in 2018. The second edition prints that the new building can't be used right away.
The designer confirmed this in 2016, matching the rulebook's description of the move action.
You use the new location, but you can't go back. A building's move gives you a full new phase B at the location where you stop. Any actions you hadn't used on the building you left are lost, so take them, including its risk action, before moving. Moves can chain if the new building also has one. Only the objective card's move skips using the new location.
Several players agree, since only the objective card's move forbids Kansas City; no official ruling.
Yes. Unlike the objective cards' move, a building's move may end in Kansas City, and you then do all the Kansas City subphases. You arrive without refilling your hand first.
The rulebook says a woods tile performing the action counts itself.
Yes, it counts itself. 1a pays $2 for each of your buildings touching the woods, including 1a if it does. It pays only when you stop on 1a and use its action, not when you build it or when others pass it. Other players passing just pay its hand fee.
The designer confirmed that a played objective card can't be used.
Only one from your hand. Like every discard, it goes from your hand to your discard pile. Objective cards already played to your objective area, or sitting in your discard pile, can't be used. You may use 1b just to clear an objective from your hand, even if your certificate marker can't move.
Several players agree, reading 4b like the draw-and-discard auxiliary action; no official ruling.
Decide how many to draw first, up to your number of cowboys, and draw them together. Then discard the same number from your whole hand, which may include the new cards. Drawing fewer than the maximum is fine.
The designer answered this exact case in 2018.
Yes. The money depends only on how many green-blue teepee pairs you have, at $2 each. How far your certificate marker actually moves doesn't matter. Since it's money, you must take all of it. With no pairs, 7a gives nothing.
Yes. A risk action counts as printed on the building it's attached to, so copying that building copies it too. If 8b itself sits on a risk space, you also get 8b's own risk action.
The rulebook defines adjacency for 8b and says the tile's owner doesn't matter.
Each time you use 8b, pick either directly adjacent building tile and use its local actions. It can be neutral, yours or an opponent's. Adjacent means nothing in between: no other location and no empty space. A hazard or an empty building space breaks adjacency.
Experienced players say the designer ruled this out in another thread, but that ruling isn't linked; one player argued for loops.
No. Landing on a building lets you activate one tile's actions. Two neighbouring 8b tiles can't bounce between each other to repeat risk actions. The only way to use more tiles in a turn is a move-cattleman action that takes you to another location.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
Yours. Your 8b acts as if it had 1a's ability and resolves it for you, so count your own buildings touching the woods. That includes 8b itself if it touches the woods, but not the copied 1a.
Yes, the first-edition rules allow the combo. The second edition banned triggering the same tile twice in one turn, and some players recommend adopting that ban as a house rule in the first edition, since the combo is very strong.
The designer ruled in 2017 that turnouts don't count but may be the last step.
No. Count only free numbered track spaces. You may still end the backward move on a turnout, uncounted, and upgrade that station, which in effect gives you a free extra step.
The designer confirmed you earn no money from it, and the rulebook describes the rest.
No. There's no income, no hand discard, no foresight and no return to the start of the trail. You just place a disc on an eligible city, free of transport costs. You resolve whatever that placement triggers: city bonuses, green-arrow actions, an unlocked disc space. With no income, you can't use it to pay for a $5 hand-limit disc unless you already have the money.
Probably not. The action's text gives no option to skip the delivery, so players who have discussed it treat placing a disc on a city as part of the action. If you just want to move your engine back, a different action is the safer choice.
No. 9a works wherever your engine is: move back X counted spaces and deliver to a city worth X or less. Reaching space 39 is a separate effect: move back any distance and gain $3. A 9a player often backs up only one space from 39 to save track for later 9a deliveries.
The designer confirmed you may claim the station master tile with 9b.
Your engine stays put. 9b upgrades any station behind your engine as if you had pulled in there, so you pay its cost, place a disc, and may take its station master tile if it's still there. It works even if another engine is parked on that turnout.
The designer confirmed this sequence in 2016.
Yes. Spend your cowboys in any order you like. Add 2 cards, buy, add 2 more, then buy again. Each cowboy is used only once, either to add cards or to help buy. You may also use cowboys only to restock, or leave some unused.
The designer answered this directly in 2017.
Yes, there's no limit. The 7, 10 or 13 card count matters only at setup and when the market refills because the job market token crossed a yellow arrow.
“No limit!”
— AlexP, designer
The rulebook's Kansas City rules describe the yellow-arrow refill and its limits.
Not after purchases. It refills automatically only when the job market token moves along a yellow arrow. The market is then topped up to 7 cards with 2 players, 10 with 3 or 13 with 4. If it already holds that many or more, nothing is added. Otherwise, cards appear only when someone spends a cowboy to add 2.
The rulebook says no more cards are added once the stack is empty.
Nothing more comes out. Refills and cowboy draws add no cards, and you can only buy what's still in the market.
The rulebook says how you split your cowboys among the options is up to you.
Yes. Divide them however you like among the purchase options, as long as each cowboy is used only once. With 5 cowboys, for example, you could buy two value-3 cards with 3 cowboys and a third card with the other 2. Any you don't use for buying can each add 2 cards.
The rulebook says each spare cowboy draws 2 cards from the stack into the market.
Neither. You draw the top 2 cards of the market cattle stack blind and add them face up. The cards already in the market stay.
One player answered; the rules impose no order, but there's no explicit ruling.
Yes. Take any card of that type in the market, for example the one with the most victory points.
No. To upgrade, your engine must move at least one space and stop on the turnout, going forward or backward. You can still forfeit an engine move, since it's a reward, but you then can't upgrade where you sit. The designer first allowed 0-space moves in 2016. After talking to the developer he reversed this the same day, and later printings state the one-space minimum.
“Please play it this way, that you have to move at least 1 space to build a station.”
— AlexP, designer
Yes, but you have to move into the turnout again. You decide whether to upgrade the moment you stop there. Staying parked doesn't let you upgrade on a later turn. Leave and come back in, which can be in the same turn with a backward then forward move. Each player upgrades a station only once, and its station master can only be taken at that moment.
The designer confirmed in 2018 that you can move into a siding from any space.
Yes. Occupied spaces are skipped as if they weren't there, so you can hop past an engine and pull into the turnout. This works going backward too. An engine blocks a station only by sitting on its turnout.
Several players agree, following the one-engine-per-space rule; no official ruling.
Yes. An engine may stay on a turnout as long as you like, and nobody else can stop there while it's occupied. Other engines just skip that space. Parking there can also cut your transport costs.
The rulebook's backward-movement rules allow stopping on a turnout and forbid moving fewer spaces than required.
You can enter or pass through a turnout, but you can't stop short. Backward movement follows the same paths as forward, and a turnout counts as a space. If you end on one, you may upgrade that station. Building 9a is the exception, since turnouts don't count toward its delivery. A backward move is a requirement, so you must move the full number of spaces.
The rulebook's engine rules say stopping forfeits any excess movement.
No. You may move fewer spaces than allowed, but once you stop, any movement you had left is gone. You may pass a turnout without stopping. Only where the move ends can you upgrade.
The rulebook's engine rules define the turnout as an additional space.
Yes, a turnout counts as one space between the two track spaces it branches from. From the switch space, your next step is either the next track space or the turnout. Leaving the turnout puts you on the next track space, so from the 4–5 turnout you go to 5. Engine movement itself costs no money, and crosses only matter for delivery.
The rulebook's upgrading rules allow this regardless of opponents' discs.
Yes. Each player may put one disc on each station, stacked on any discs already there, and scores its points. The station master tile goes only to whoever claims it first, and claiming it is optional. You can never have two of your own discs on one station.
The rulebook's station master rules describe the swap.
It's optional. If you take the tile, choose any worker row and give up the hired worker on that row's rightmost occupied space. It needn't be a 6th space or the rightmost worker overall. The worker replaces the tile on the board for the rest of the game. Printed workers can't be used, so with no hired workers you can't take a tile.
The rulebook says the tile can only be acquired at the moment of upgrading; the disc-removal case follows from the publisher's clarification that you may move a disc off a station.
No. The tile can only be taken at the moment you upgrade its station. Since you can't upgrade the same station twice, declining means losing it for good. Players note one exception: if you later have to take your disc back off that station, it no longer counts as upgraded, so you can upgrade it again and claim the tile if it's still there.
The rulebook describes the immediate actions as taken right away or forfeited.
No. The immediate half triggers once, when you take the tile. A trade with the Indians from it pays or costs the teepee's money as usual, and a hazard removal from it is free. A permanent certificate on the upper half, though, adds 1 to every later delivery.
The rulebook's engine rules describe space 39.
Movement ends there, and you may upgrade the space-39 station. Then, in the same turn, you must move back at least one space to any free space, turnouts included, and gain $3. That's $3 total, not per space, and any leftover movement is lost. If you land on a turnout you may upgrade it, even with the $3. On later turns the engine moves forward as normal.
Several players agree, since the rule isn't limited to the first time; no official ruling.
Yes. Nothing limits it to the first time. Each arrival at space 39 means another move back and another $3, and backing up one space and returning farms money. You still can't place a second disc on the space-39 station.
The rulebook exempts the starting space from the one-engine limit.
Yes. The starting space is the only track space that can hold any number of engines, so it never blocks you.
Yes. If one location gives you two separate engine moves, each move can end on a turnout and upgrade a station. No rule limits you to one upgrade per turn.
The rulebook says an engine that stops on a turnout while moving backwards may upgrade that station as usual.
Yes. Stopping on a turnout lets you decide right away whether to upgrade, as with any engine move, and then you move your certificate marker.
The designer answered this directly in 2016.
Yes, just take it. The other cattleman stays on the now-empty space and starts from there on its next turn.
“Yes it's possible. Just take it.”
— AlexP, designer
Several players agree, citing the rulebook's placement examples; no official ruling.
No. Remaining tiles stay where they are. New tiles go to the empty space with the lowest number, or for teepees the lowest money value, so gaps get refilled first.
The rulebook's Remove a hazard rules tie the cost to the action icon.
Whatever the action icon shows: $7 on the neutral building, $5 on private building 4a, and nothing where no cost is printed, such as the station master bonus. The hand on the hazard tile is only the fee for moving past it. Hazards score their printed 2 to 4 VP at game end.
The rulebook's Trade with the Indians rules describe the money values.
Only when you take that teepee with a trade-with-the-Indians action. Negative spaces cost money and positive ones pay out. You may pick any teepee in the section, even a costly one. Passing teepees on the trail only costs their hand fee.
Several players agree; it follows from the objective and station master tasks.
Yes, colour matters in several places. Some objective cards need a teepee of a particular colour. A station master tile and building 7a reward green-blue pairs. The hand on a teepee also sets the fee for passing it. Paying for a teepee is worth it when you need that colour.
The rulebook's objective card section sets out these timings.
Before phase A, or before or after any single action in phase B. That includes between two local actions of the same building and after your last action. You can't play one in the middle of an action or once phase C has started. If an objective's own immediate action draws cards, finish its draw and discard before playing another.
The rulebook says you can play any of them at the allowed timings.
As many as you like. The rules let you play any of the objective cards in your hand at each allowed moment, not just one per turn.
The designer explained this in 2016, applying the rulebook's text on the card.
You can't use the location where it stops. It moves your cattleman up to 3 steps, ignoring hand fees. Play it before phase A and you then move and act normally from where you stopped. Play it after your phase B actions and you go straight to phase C. Playing it during phase B, before an action, moves you away and forfeits that building's remaining actions, so the designer calls that timing never good. You can't use it to slip in between phase A and phase B and then act at the new spot.
The rulebook says you're not allowed to move to Kansas City with this immediate action.
No. The rulebook forbids it, and once you reach Kansas City by normal movement, you can't play a card to skip the Kansas City steps either. A private building's move action, by contrast, can end in Kansas City.
The rulebook's card text ignores hands, not locations, and every location is a step.
Yes. Every location still uses a step. The card only spares you the green and black hand fees along the way.
The rulebook lets you forfeit any objective card's immediate action.
In effect, yes. Whether "up to 3" allows 0 steps is disputed, since normal movement needs at least 1. But the question doesn't matter, because you may always play an objective card and forfeit its immediate action. The card still goes to your objective area.
The rulebook ties the immediate action to playing the card.
When you play it. A newly gained objective card usually goes face up onto your discard pile and reaches your hand after a reshuffle (one private building action adds it directly to your hand instead). Playing it from your hand to your objective area gives you the top-left bonus once, and commits you to its tasks. Taking a card, even in Kansas City, gives no bonus.
The rulebook sends gained objectives to the discard pile and makes 6b's card go to your hand.
Usually not, because gained objectives go to your discard pile. The exception is building 6b. It has you discard a cattle card for $3 and an objective card that goes straight into your hand, so you can play it that turn. An objective card you draw from your own deck is in hand and can be played as usual.
Several players agree; it follows from the deck rules.
They come back when you reshuffle your discard pile into a new draw stack. In hand, they take up a slot like any other card, which is one reason players usually play them soon.
The rulebook says to perform the immediate action or forfeit it.
No. Perform it or forfeit it. Either way, it's used once, when the card is played, and never again.
The rulebook's objective section lists this immediate action.
When you play the card, draw up to 3, then discard as many as you drew from your whole hand. It changes which cards you hold, not how many. Since the objective card itself left your hand, you carry on with one card fewer until phase C.
Several players agree; the restriction is written only for the cattleman move.
Yes. The ban on using the location applies only to the objective card's cattleman move. An engine move from an objective follows all the normal engine rules, including upgrading and taking the station master.
The designer confirmed this in 2017, matching the rulebook.
No. The starting objective has no negative value, so leaving it unfulfilled costs nothing. The designer says it's there to give new players a direction, not to force a strategy. You can even let it go so your tasks fulfil a more valuable card.
The rulebook's objective card section states this, with an example.
No. Each fulfilled task counts for only one objective card. Two cards that each need 2 buildings need 4 buildings, and two San Francisco cards need two San Francisco discs. You decide which cards your items fulfil. Station master tiles are scored separately and may count the same items.
The rulebook's objective section and final scoring step 7 describe this choice.
No, they're optional. At final scoring, collect every objective card still in your deck, hand or discard pile. For each one, either add it to your objective area (without its immediate action), or remove it from the game. Only cards in the objective area score, plus if fulfilled and minus if not. Cards you played during the game must be scored.
The rulebook notes objective cards can stay in your deck by discarding them through actions that discard any card.
Only through an action that lets you discard one. The rulebook says an objective card can be discarded by any action that discards a card of any type, and draw-and-discard effects can cycle it out too; either way it stays in your deck. It can't meet a requirement that shows a specific breed. Building 1b specifically asks for an objective card, and the card-removal auxiliary action can remove one from the game. You can't simply discard cards from your hand for nothing.
The rulebook's task list names a disc on a train station.
Train stations. It asks for one of your discs on an upgraded train station, not a disc on a city.
The rulebook's objective action and special cases cover this.
Either option is fine: take a face-up card from the display or draw the top card of the stack. A face-up card you take is replaced at once. Either way, the card goes onto your discard pile. If the stack runs out, the display is no longer refilled.
The rulebook's End of the Game section describes this sequence.
Every player except the one who triggered it. The trigger comes when a worker fills the last job market space and the token leaves along the red arrow. The triggering player finishes that Kansas City turn, which is her last, and takes the job market token. Each other player then gets one final turn in normal turn order, including the start player if they come later. There are no rounds, so players may end with different numbers of turns.
The rulebook's End of the Game section says to skip a subphase only if only workers are left.
Yes. Once the job market is full, only worker tiles are off limits. If one tile of a foresight pair is a teepee or hazard, you must take it and place it. You skip a subphase only when both of its tiles are workers. Empty foresight spaces are still refilled at the end of the turn.
The rulebook awards the token to the triggering player and scores it for 2 VP.
The player whose worker placement pushes the token off the job market along the red arrow. That triggers the game end, and she keeps the token for 2 VP.
The rulebook's Final Scoring section says a tie is shared.
No. Tied players share the victory.
Final scoring category 9 sets this out.
4 VP for each worker on the 5th or 6th space of a row. That's up to 8 per row and 24 across all three rows. Workers you gave up as station masters are gone and don't count.
The rulebook's station master task says it includes the printed workers.
Yes. It counts every worker in your worker section, including the three printed on the board, so it's worth at least 3. Workers you sent off as station masters are no longer yours and don't count.
The rulebook says station master tasks are totally independent of objective card tasks.
Yes. Station master tasks are scored independently of objective cards, so the same items count for both. Only objective cards can't share items with one another.
The rulebook's station master task counts objective cards in your objective area.
No. It counts only cards in your objective area, fulfilled or not. At final scoring you may move unplayed objectives from your deck into that area to help this tile. They then score their penalty if unfulfilled, which can still pay off if the tile's points outweigh it.
The rulebook's station master task counts certificates you have, permanent or temporary.
Yes, it counts permanent and temporary certificates alike, but only those you still hold at game end. Temporary certificates you spent on deliveries don't count, and neither does your unused limit.
The rulebook removes replaced tiles from the game and scores only tiles on the board.
No. A replaced building goes back to the box, so only the buildings currently on the board score their VP and count for building objectives. If you left the old tile underneath, count only the top one.
The designer answered this directly in 2018.
Yes. Exchange tokens can be used at any time, even partway through another draw-and-discard. The designer admits he doesn't love that, but ruling it out would have taken several more sentences of rules.
“Short answer: Yes. Any time is any time.”
— AlexP, designer
The designer ruled on this in 2018.
Yes. The bonus revealed on your board when you take the branchlet comes before the town's bonus, so the new exchange token is already available.
The designer answered this exact case in 2018.
Yes. The money depends only on how many bell spaces you have fully cleared, not on how far the marker moves. As money, it must be taken in full.
Use the city's number, not the drawn branch line. Count the red crosses between your engine and the main-track space with that number, such as space 8 for Denver or 18 for San Francisco. As in the base game, transport costs must be paid in full. If you can't pay, deliver somewhere else.
Several owners agree, citing the expansion rulebook's notes on the promos; no official ruling.
No. Rails to the North already includes the station master promos and building 11, so use just one copy of each.
Only building 11 and the extra station master tiles. With those, pick 5 station masters at random. The expansion isn't modular: building 12, branchlets, medium towns and the other new pieces all depend on the new board.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
Yes. Any city you could legally deliver to counts, including expansion cities your branchlets have opened up, as long as its value doesn't exceed the counted spaces you moved back.
Several players play it this way, reading the expansion's wording; no official ruling.
Probably not. Players generally rule that expansion station towns are upgraded only when you build the branchlet that reaches them. They're unrelated to your engine's position, so being "behind your engine" doesn't apply.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
Not by delivering. When you place the branchlet that reaches it, you may pay $7 and place a disc there. You can also appoint a station master worker to take its tile, much like an ordinary station upgrade.
No. The value-2 discard belongs only to the branchlet auxiliary action. A branchlet icon elsewhere, such as on a station tile, gives the branchlet free.
One player answered; no official ruling.
Once, when you clear that disc space, just like the $5 for a hand-limit space. After that you pay only the action's normal requirement.
Single players answered each part, one quoting the setup rules; no official ruling.
It isn't removed. A medium town tile stays on the board, with a branchlet spot for each player, so everyone can claim it. At setup, 6 of the 10 tiles are drawn at random and placed on the board, much like station master tiles.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
No. They go to your discard pile and come back around like any discard. Only effects with the red X icon remove cattle from the game, such as the player board action and some medium town tiles.
Several players agree, citing the expansion rulebook; no official ruling.
Delivering to New York City. You take one of the station master tiles displayed there without giving up a worker. San Francisco moves to the expansion board and scores differently there.
Several players agree, quoting the expansion setup; no official ruling.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
Yes. The task still needs your disc on San Francisco. Counting New York instead is only a house rule.