Great Western Trail - Playthrough & Review (Pfister Series)
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- Опубліковано 6 лип 2024
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Welcome to game #6 in our Alexander Pfister series! This is "Great Western Trail" a board game designed by Alexander Pfister in 2016 and published by Eggertspiele. This video includes a rules overview.
JUMP:
00:00 - Rules Overview
23:19 - Playthrough Start
1:36:14 - End Game Scoring
1:41:29 - Review
BGG Link: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1...
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This is THE Great Western Trail! What are your thoughts and feeling on this title?
It's the best 3.5+ complexity game I've tried so far, really loved it! I love how wide open the strategy is but because you have to follow the trail it limits things a bit per turn, requires planning a few turns ahead and prevents AP as well. Even though the game takes quite a while to play with 4, I love that people take their turns pretty fast, didn't feel there was much downtime at all.
Love it! Great review guys. Please you need to compare this with Maracaibo... I'm still on the fence with that one 😖
This is a game I would love to play but the theme holds me back from playing.
The best thing about this game is the DIVERSITY requirement for the cows. The more diverse the herd, the better! Such a different deck building mechanism. Love AP games!
You guys have become my favorite board gamers on the UA-cam’s. Your opinions are so well expressed and never feel fake or contrived. Really appreciate all the hard work. Pumped for more!
Thank you so much for your kind words and support! We're excited to make some more videos!
Excellent play through. I just got the second edition and even though there may be slight differences this gave me a good foundation to understand the mechanics. Thank you.
I am finally taking an afternoon to learn this game after not for so long. I am so glad y'all have this video. I always pick one of you to root for when the video starts to see if they win :) Thank you for the fun.
Love your playthroughs ❤ I find it very entertaining and also calming / relaxing 😊 You explain everything very well, love your pace and you let us in on your thought process during the game. Keep up the great work you guys 😊🌸👍
Lord of the board sent me! Can’t wait for you to hit 10k guys! You deserve it!
Just played my first game today and came to you guys for a few of the more fiddely rules we got wrong (banishing cards from discard doubling tokens for objective cards) and it was great! Thank you so much for your straight talk, rules overview, and seeing how the game actually goes!
Just backed The Weather Machine based on your playthrough aswell it's all great stuff! Looking forward to being a subscriber
Lord of the board sent me! Love you guys
Just picked this up and am waiting for it to deliver. Great timing! Excited as usual to watch another one of your videos and to use Monique's teach as a guide for learning the game (no pressure-- they are always great!)
HI Robert, glad that this worked out timing wise haha! Hope this video helps you get the game to the table sooner!
Again, I just so appreciate this series. Can’t wait for the next few games. I own this one and love it but I don’t have any of his newer games so that will be fun to see those ones. Bravo you two.
Thank you for your support Jessica, we are having a lot of fun playing through all of these titles! :-)
This was a really well done playthrough! Very informative, quick, and exciting! Thanks, watched the whole thing, no worries about the error on one of the tracks, good thing you realized it xD
This has been on my radar for ages because of the following. I’ve been waiting for your review on this. Going to wait for the rest of the series before adding a Pfister to the collection.
Thanks for supporting the channel, it really means a lot when we read comments like yours! Let us know when the dust settles which one you will be gunning for! :-)
Been waiting forever for this one. I love Pfister, I love GWT and I love your playthroughs
Thank you for being patient with us lol! I wish we were both better at this one haha
This is currently my all time favorite, thanks a lot for the video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
One of my favourite games! The expansion is amazing!
I wish I could remember all the details from the expansion. So many people really like it!
I love Maracaibo! The deck- building in GWT puts it in the play-it-before-purchase category for me. Thanks for your rules overview! & Thanks to Lord of the Board for bringing me here!
y'all are smashing out the reviews.
We're having a blast doing it! Thanks for your support Robert. :-)
Love this game! Easily one of my top 5. You definitely should play it some with the expansion. As you mentioned, the building/craftsman strategy can be very effective and where you place your buildings can be crucial. Thanks for the great review - I think you nailed some of the key points of enjoyment and replay-ability that this game has to offer.
We only wish we were more skilled at the game. We've played it 5+ times and feel like we are just now understanding all the little nuances this game has. We've tried the expansion once maybe a year ago and unfortunately cannot remember much about it :-(
The lord of the board has sent me! Hope you hit 10k today!
i just played this tonight and scored an unreal 130! youtube algorithm is next level. thanks for excellent content!
Big Brother is Watching! 130!!?? Wow show me your waysssss! haha
Ahh the best Pfister is here :) Thank you
Glad you like it! Have you played all of his titles?
Lord of the board sent me ! Congratulations on the growth x
This game with the expansion is on my "soon/must purchase" list. Thanks for the great play through. I loved the lines; "I was merciful when I built... That doesn't mean much..." LOL
Glad you enjoyed it! Monique has no mercy... lol
Lord of the board sent me, but I have been enjoying your videos for a minute.
Lord of the board sent me. Good luck getting to 10k!
LOL...I was laughing pretty hard during the scoring section. Well done again guys! I really enjoyed my play of GWT too. I can't wait for the Pfister final rankings! Until then I'll sit back and enjoy.
Hi Jeff, thanks for checking it out. Glad we made the playthrough entertaining@ ;-)
I love this game!
Crazy how 4 years have gone by since this was released!!
Great teach and fun playthrough! GWT is my #2 game all time behind Feast for Odin. It's always been one of those games that I can get better at and learn something every time I play. I never look up strategies on board games, I just let the game show its depth over time. In my opinion, there's not many games of this weight that do it this well. A lot of the time I feel like heavier games have complexity that creates this disjointed feeling during play, and I never get that feeling from GWT. I tend to enjoy action efficiency games, and this one is all about that. I also really enjoy the xpac and pretty much play exclusively with it as it adds more to the depth of the deliveries and gives you more flexibility for card management.
Thanks for the compliment! We had a really good time filming this one. Totally agree with you on getting that satisfaction from being efficient with your actions! We want to play with the expansion again, it comes so highly recommended by everyone.
The rules overview you guys do is great
Thank you!
Lord od The board sent me here 😁 The gane looks very intresting
I was pleasantly surprised with this game and the Expansion makes it even more playable!
Well done. Good Luck on Maracaibo, that one we struggled with the rules for the non legacy setup. After that it wasn't bad. Love GWT something about moving around the board reminds me of some of my childhood games, but better :)
Hey Thomas, you're totally right about that! Moving around the board is super nostalgic ;-).
We hope to do Maracaibo justice lol
Great video! GWT is my 3rd favorite game of all time. I recommend the Rails to the North expansion.
I'm glad I discovered your channel.
P.S. best first move is to usually set up a toll building in a strategic location.
I always like your stuff, Lord of the Board sent me to this video.
Thanks for coming!!
Totally relating to Naveen's feels once the final scoring was complete. Love your point on the combination of mechanics in this game and I also really enjoy them... worker placements, deck building, buying/selling cows, etc... but I just can't get past the theme. I think the theme is what really puts a stale mark on this game for me. I still give it a 7.5 / 10.
Great review!! Thanks guys!
Fantastic play through.
Thank you so much!
Just ran accidentally into your channel (looking for Darwin's Journey videos) and stayed with you for the next few movies :-) What an interesting couple of youtubers you are - really focused on the subject, not showing off. Main characters of your movies are the games you play, not you. So rare 'these days'... ;-) I do like GWT - a marvellous game with so many ways to win, with a noticable tension made by the other players. You can't just do what you want, you have to watch and react. Hard life but this is the wiiiiild west, darling! ;-)
I'm new to board gaming (I don't want to just say gaming, I also play pc games), and I only bought like 3 games. But man, the more I watch the more my list grows.. And I could buy 3 more just like that. This is one of them
Great video. New sub here. Recording quality is top notch. You guys speak very clearly and "professionally" (like not a lot of "um" or "like").
@1:50:13 A little nitpick... this is not a worker placement game according to BGG and i tend to agree. Worker placement games usually involve competing placement with other players. As players can share spaces in this game, there are no tension in placement.
That is a very fair point that we hadn't considered. Thank you for that definition!
Great Western Trail is my favorite game of all time, but I am not great at it either. I highly recommend the expansion as well. The fact that it has so many ways to score points is a great positive in my opinion.
I can definitely see why it's your #1 super solid and smooth mechanics! We'd love to try the expansion again soon.
Given that it's been some time since ypu commented. Have you tried Maracaibo yet?
It wont let me subscribe again! 🙂. I absolutely love Mara caibo but have not played this one yet. I m sure I will like it but I'm trying to slow down the train of buying games. I'm alao really enjoying these designer series that you both are doing. Seeing the progression of game design is really cool. Great idea! 🙂
lol we appreciate your solo subscription! Hope you get to try this one out in the future! There is definitely some design similarity between GWT and Maracaibo.
Thank you for sharing this game, i really enjoy GWT but not my friends who i usually play with even since i've bought the extension ( still sealed...) and to finish i think the cowboy's strategy is the best way to score the most points ^^ ( always a win :-))
Expansion is really good opens the game up to new strategies. Hope you get to experience it soon.
This game is great, the best Pfister's in my opinion. Just played the first time with its expansion "Rails to the North" last weekend and the game improves with it!
Everyone speaks so highly of the expansion, we gotta play with it again soon!
Love this game, one of my favourites. You should try it with the expansion as it really adds to the experience and balances a few of the strategies as well. Wouldn't play the base game again. Or you can stick with what you love.
Played Vinhos for the first time on the weekend and loved it. Although as usual I lost to my wife....
We've tried the expansion once but for some reason can't remember it well enough to speak on it. Lots of people have been commenting with positivity in regards to the expansion. Losing to our wives is far too common lol
I thought it was agreed that the expansion just adds to the build strategy?
I adore this game so very much. It does help that I love western themes though :).
Glad you enjoy it, it's a very creative and solid design!
I’m a Mombasa and Maracaibo fan. Never played GWT and couldn’t see what all the hype is about. But now I might have to give it a shot!
I always play with a different rule on hazards in that they just take up movement rather than paying to cross them. You get to use the building spaces with the additional option and can make your opposition slower to them by putting hazards in their way.
Also a good alternative is to let players use your buildings with a rental cost of the ammount of builders it needs for same dollars.
Now my fourth year deeper in the hobby and this is still my favourite game currently struggling with Maracaibo for the #1 spot. But I still haven't played Lisboa :-D
I enjoy this game a lot. I have played about 5 times and have never won. I like the multiple strategies. It is probably best at more players so you have multiple building options.
We agree, I think 3 is the sweet spot for us. That extra player's buildings, more workers to hire, and the ability to leap over multiple locomotives, and overall more competition.
Lord of the board sent me! 👾
The lord sent me also I really liked the video :D
Hello!
thank you
LOL " A cow with a bull horn........a bull."😂
Lol, a product of talking before thinking! hahahaha
The expansion makes the game even better!
We've played it once but for some reason can't remember much about it!
Nice video! I think you will love Blackout HK. This game is so well done in my opinion.
Thank you! We’re looking forward to releasing that one soon =)
I am not usually very fond of so heavy games, but I now understand what the hype is what about. I do think that playing with experienced players is not a good idea, as the game requires intricate knowledge of what tactics work. Still, I like it that turns do not take a long time, which is instrumental for heavy games in order not to come as too overwhelming.
Totally agree, more experienced players should have a significant advantage. One of the big ones being knowing how to thin your deck at the right time and also understanding the true economy of the game. Short snappy turns in a slightly heavy Euro is always a blessing :)
I have played Great Western Trail a half dozen times or so. It is a good design, the subsystems fit reasonably well, and there a lot of strategic choices to weigh. I just only have so much room for low interactive Euros, and I already have Gaia Project in that slot. Probably would not turn down a game, at 2-3 players, but not something that I have had a desire to pick up myself.
Congratulations on your videos, I love them! Any plans or doing a playthrough and Review of Maracaibo? :)
Great great game. The Rails to the North lights this game up.
really? i heard mixed things on a podcast, but i do love expanding games... what do you like about it.
@@Jaaskle It basically takes the shipping part of the game from a 3 to a 10. It adds a ton of depth and options help to fine-tune your strategy. I won’t say it’s completely essential because the base game has plenty of interesting decision points. If you are a fan of the game it is a complete no-brainer.
@@neversummer5091 thanks dude! i'll def put it on the list!
We've played it once and now I (Naveen) want to play it again now that we've played the base several times.
@@BeforeYouPlay I was surprised that you guys glossed over the expansion in the video. I hoped it would be part of your play-through not that it would of fit on screen haha. But I am glad Monica talked about her previous comment about not liking the game. Looking forward to Maracaibo!
I really enjoy this one and this video encourages me to get it back to the table. If I could just get my wife to take a break from kicking my butt at Brass Birmingham.
lol Monique wins 4/5 games we play!! She so hard to beat
@@BeforeYouPlay I feel your pain my friend 😀
I love this game so much, currently is my top 2 but Maracaibo is getting higher each time I play it
We're excited to play Maracaibo a few more times before we film it! :)
Lord of the Board sent me :)
The lord of the board sent me!
Yello!
Lord of the Board sent me! :)
Hi!
Lord of the board sent me!
Lord of the board sent me
You should try playing this with the railways to the north expansion. Makes it a lot more interesting.
Lord of the board sent me. PS. I was already subscribed before all the kids thought it was cool
Haha definitely ahead of the curve!
Hmm watching this again after learning 2nd edition. unless they changed this rule in 2nd edition when you play a teepee (badits in 2nd edition) you have to play it on lowest numbered spot (same as hazards). This matters because when you pick them up the coins gained are different.
Alexander Pfister is a master - no doubt! I have started loving him because of "Port Royal", which I play until today with joy!
Now I have ordered his "Monster Expedition" because of the great "Heckmeck"-mechanism he tries to develop here. Have you tried it already? Because I can't wait! Or are these too small games for you?
He really is a master, all games leading up to GWT are so so different in terms of mechanic and theme. We received a copy of Monster Expedition from Amigo recently. It certainly will be on the channel in the future when we wrap up this series!
@@BeforeYouPlay Great to hear that! I will put this game into the so called "Nikolausstiefel" of my daughter on December 6 ;-)
As you mentioned at the end, one thing that can really turn down a game for me is playing with experienced people, while beeing a newbie.
I mean, I don't have this feeling with all games, but there's a lot of them that do this and it's just too frustrating.
Just to have a few examples I'd say Terra Mystica and Tzolk'in were a big thubms down for me just because there was someone dominating the game on the table.
I don't mind playing games against vastly stronger/experienced players, if at least I get the feeling, I accomplished some of my own goals and/or experienced something of a story or some flavor on the way. I think, this is why Terra Mystica failed me. I didn't even play against stronger players as our group learned the group together, but it just ends up being... too dry and looking like Settlers of Catan by then end of the game despite the Fantasy Setting and all these different races.
Somehow Tzolk'in just feels great to play because trying to get your own stuff working and not screwing up, is such a puzzle, that I don't quite mind it, if someone else is doing vastly better.
I think, the best example for this is Everdell. My opponent could have twice my points at the end and I wouldn't care because I experienced my own "story".
So, Great Western Trails. I think if the first game was rough, it will help immensely to read a strategy guide, if you're up against experienced players and get you up to speed. Even first timers can win GWT, which happened to us. We already had a bunch of plays (at least 5) in and the new non-genious guy won anyway.
@@paulszki I'm not the kind of player that go for strategy guides. I like to discover and create my own strategies and don't mind that they're bad or as good as it can be. I didn't like Terra Mystica and can't really tell why, I've played with new and with very experienced players. None of them felt really good and the table with stronger players just made me quit trying. But I really like Catan hehe one of my most played games and one I always try to show to new players and everyone seems to enjoy it, quite different from TM...
Just played Everdell once and with new players. The best example of that for me was when I've played Lisboa. I liked it a lot and was aggainst two strong plalyers and one that played before but not a lot. It didn't feel any bad making only half of the points as the two best there. The game was a enjoying puzzle to crack. While Tzolk'in one move you made wrong in the first five rounds can carry you out for like the entire game.
I think that just might be the competitive nature we have. I do appreciate it in games where no matter the outcome, I still had fun with my overall experience. Monique and I call those "journey games", where the outcome is secondary to the joy of experiencing the gameplay itself. :-)
I love your videos, but I wish you had an additional camera showing closeups of tiles/chits or player boards, etc. There's a lot of little symbols in this game I can't really make out with the whole play area in view, even in 1080p. Thanks for the work you do though!
I'm new to gaming and would like to get up to be able to play The Great Western Trail.. What games should I start out with that would be stepping stones, teaching the different mechanisms, (easily) to lead up to being able to play this game?
Is that the Folded Space insert for the game (that the coins are in)? If so, how do you like it?
Good eye, yes it is! It's a very functional insert and I believe they also accounted for the Northern Rails expansion. We really like folded space due to both it's functionality and light weight design.
A game that’s hard to master is in my opinion one of the best. If I play this game and don’t know what’s the best strategy I’m loving it. I don’t want to know the best strategy because that will make the game predictable and thus boring. Also this is a game where I can say I had fun even when I lost big time.
Lord of the Board sent me
You also have objectives cards in your deck , not only cows : )
Right, cannot remember if we mentioned it in the teach. I know we utilized it in the playthrough however.
I wanted to add this to my cart at Mini Market ... but of course out of stock.
For how popular this game is it sure goes out of stock way too often.
Yeah, I'm surprised they don't do larger print runs, as it seems like it goes out of stock immediately after each printing.
Maybe I see this wrong, but it seems to me that this game is essentially about getting cattle to Kansas city. Now, Naveen did this consistently better than Monique, yet he loses... That seems a bit wrong to me....
This game is one of my top 2 of all time with Spirit Island. The expansion is fun, but not necessary. I play mostly with my daughter and her #1 is Maracaibo. So will be interested to see what you think of that. Also, I got Lisboa and just can't seem to "love" it...I like it, but not something that I just fell in love with. I think because it doesn't have a central "thing" you are driving towards...it is a sandbox #1 and #2, I don't think there is anything really fun about it. Whereas GWT, it is actually fun to have a purple cow show up and sell it. Lacerda is more work IMHO.
Isn't the central thing in Lisboa is to rebuild Lisboa??? Most of the game revolves around that and its also where you can get the most points. Selling goods and movement on the clergy track are somewhat disjointed I suppose but both serve as ancillary actions in my opinion.
We still have Spirit Island on our shelf of shame, we are excited to finally get it to the table in the near future! We are gearing up for Maracaibo soon, just got to get through Blackout Hong Kong first ;)
We're bias with Lisboa. Like @Darrell Sweet said, the central thing is rebuilding the city of Lisboa through the efficiencies of your hand management and action selection timing. Totally get where you are coming from with Vital feeling like "work" lol.
Will you include Cloud Age in this Pfsiter series?
We have plans to when copies become available!
@@BeforeYouPlay Amazing!
I'm somewhat certain that Lord of the Board sent me here...
The theme is one that doesn’t do it with my friends. I like the game and have the expansion but its difficult to get peeps I know to play it.
Oh that's too bad! It's such a solid design with so many options.
I’m not a cat person but if a cat themed game is good then it’s theme doesn’t matter to me. Theme is just a bonus. Almost any game can have a different theme if the right person with an imagination comes along to make it happen.
this might be the only game of his that I don't mind paying.
I also bought and played Maracaibo (after I played quite a bit of GWT) and can see, that his games seem to take a couple of plays to actually be fun and I think that's a big weakness. After five or so plays I'm finally kind of comfortable with Maracaibo but I never REALLY feel like playing it, even if it then ends up being quite fun and tense. Even with all the cards and theoretic variety in Maracaibo, if someone asked me, which I'd rather play right now, it would be Great Western Trails.
Haha not a fan??
Paul I think you are right, especially with his newer/heavier titles over the last few years. It really does take a few plays.
Hi - are you two going to review Blackout Hong Kong?
Yes we are! Hopefully this week
Always call this game Moonopoly :) Go round the board, collect your 200bucks at Kansas lol
I m waiting to have time and obtain Maracaibo
Why is this game so expensive in amazon? (I’m new so I in,y know a few stores). I haven’t tried buying from other stores
Good game.... one of my favorite Board game...
your videos would be more enjoyable if the quality on the game board would be better defined. We don’t see correctly the differents parts of the game.
If you could have zoomed in on the tiles you're talking about it would have been a perfect tutorial. Sadly it was very hard to follow on my screen.
It seemed on a couple occasions you didn't pay your partner for passing over his red building in the middle of the board
GWT vs Maracaibo? 2players mostly
Do you really think this is heavier than Mombasa? I'm not sure, my instinct was to say that one is heavier, but I guess it's close. Personally I definitely strongly prefer Mombasa to GWT. But I do understand that puts me in the minority. And I don't dislike GWT, it's fine, I just love Mombasa.
Had it. Sold it.
Fair enough! What was your reason if you don't mind?
"the cow with the horns on it" .... "the bull" lol you guys. I gave this game to a friend, just wasn't my thing.. and yes, I know I am in the minority.
Lol, we actually looked it up after the fact! Apparently there are breeds of cows that have horns?! For some reasons we thought only bulls did!
@@BeforeYouPlay I just thought it was super cute lol
Maracaibo is the way to go
Hello this one o maracaibo with one tecomendd
4 years late.
I know I should try this game, but Westerns just have never appealed to me.
Western themes are Monique's least favorite.
@@BeforeYouPlay Well I'm glad we relate on that. I cant put my finger on it but I just never feel inspired or that passionate about them. - Ilya
I love this game so mutch, but.... The learning curf is to long, the games takes so mutch time, none of my friends want to play it, as they have the same ammound of joy playing shorter and easyer games.