On the Table – Great Western Trail: El Paso speeds up the cattle trade

Since first being published in 2017, Great Western Trail has carved a path similar to that of the Wingspan universe: a modern, successful board game about wrangling and selling cattle that has spawned multiple spin-offs, each with their own riffs on the popular formula. Two larger spin-offs have been available for a while: Argentina and New Zealand. And now, the Great Western Trail has made its way all the way to El Paso, but this offering is far less complex than its predecessors, making Great Western Trail: El Paso a fantastic entry point for newcomers, and a faster, simpler version for existing fans.

Essentially, Great Western Trail: El Paso takes the elements of the original, a board game that normally lasts a good couple of hours, shaves them in half and builds a more streamlined version of the fundamentals we’ve come to know and love. A combination of deck building and moving your cowboy around a “trail” on a shared board, you’ll land on buildings, complete the actions of that building, and eventually, trade cows for profit.

In your hand, you’ll have 4 cow cards from your deck, each of different types and values. You’ll need to sell them and acquire better, fancier cows to make your deck stronger. When you reach the end of the trail, El Paso (the last building) is a crucial checkpoint where you earn bonus points based on the value of cows in your hand, so the core strategy revolves around improving your deck while also creating new buildings and adding various workers into the fold.

I really enjoyed the pace of Great Western Trail: El Paso. By removing some of the complexities, you’re able to get into the action much quicker. One positive change is the way specific characters work; in the original, they’re placed on a large drafting board, and can do different things once collected, increasing in price. In El Paso, the Engineer, Cowboy, and Builder have useful actions still, but they’re cards instead, and put into your discard pile once used. Then, when they enter your hand, they instantly become bankable and useable again, so that flow of the deck becomes far more important.

That said, thematically speaking, there are no bandits or hazards in El Paso, which could be seen as a negative. These were fun ways to trip up opponents, where other players would need to make toll payments to progress, or be penalised in other ways. They would trip up the faster pace of El Paso, though, so I can understand why they’re not included; it really becomes a race to get around the board as quickly as possible. In our games, one player dawdled a bit too much on the earlier parts of the trail, which left them in the dust.

This streamlined version is still a great addition to the collection for cattle-lovers of all kinds. Taking a beefy modern classic like Great Western Trail and creating this approachable sped-up version is no easy task, but El Paso still captures the essence of what makes the series so successful, while being much easier to get to the table. I love how chunky the cowboy meeples are, too. The artwork is as solid as ever, and the quality of components is strong, too. It’s far less of a table-hog, as well, making this a very convenient choice across the board.

For those new to the Great Western Trail, El Paso is a wonderful first step. For existing fans, it’s great to have a condensed version of the cow-trading game that plays in half the time, while still maintaining its tactical strengths.

Great Western Trail: El Paso is available now in all good board game stores. Thanks to VR Distribution for providing a copy for this review.