See you in El Paso!

There are more and more versions of 🐄 Great Western Trail out there, so you might be wondering: “What is El Paso?” 🤔 It’s in a bit of a weird spot, as it is not a duel version; nor is it a roll&write; nor does it add any new mechanics. It is basically like the original GWT, but streamlined and shrunken down. 👉 Less components, less rules, less playtime, and a smaller price tag. I’d say it’s a bit like how Jaws of the Lion works as a gateway into bigger Gloomhaven.

That said, it is very fun to play - of course, because it is GWT. 🤭 It is definitely easier than the original as some things are removed. There are no longer bandits/tepees or hazards, and workers are cards now instead of tiles, which means you no longer have to fiddle with all those little tokens. This definitely saves a lot on setup time.

You pretty much do the same things as usual: 🧐 You move, activate a building, then draw cards back to hand size. Whenever you reach the end of the track (El Paso in this case), you can place a disc to unlock an ability from your player board. The better your breeding value, the better spot you can claim.

Similar with workers:

🤠 Cowboys get new cattle cards so you can have better breeding values.

🏠 Builders construct new buildings or upgrade existing ones. (In El Paso there are only 2 of each building for every player, so things could get tight. There is also a limit of 2 buildings per player on the map).

🚂 Engineers activate train cards to claim objectives or bonus tiles. (There are no train meeples anymore, only 4 train cards with different rewards. This is another big simplification which works well.)

Unfortunately the smaller price also means lower quality components: player boards are thin paper, and player tokens are cardboard instead of wood - except for the humongous meeples. 😄 Instead of a game board there is a cloth mat. It seems to be a trend now, but I am not so convinced about them.

In summary though this is (expectedly) a great title. 😊 Of course its bigger brothers easily overshadow it, however if you don’t have the energy or time to set those up, El Paso will scratch that same itch, but with much less of a hassle. 👍