Gamehelpelpasogwt
El Paso at the end of the 19th century: five railroad companies have connected the Sun City to their network and made it a major hub for the cattle trade. Take on the role of ranchers of that time and bring your best cattle to El Paso to earn money and victory points. Hire more cowboys, builders, and engineers to get closer to your goals.
Central Display
The central display at the top features:
- The map with various buildings and empty spaces and a circular trail connecting those, appearing as a dashed line. In the center, there are trading posts with numbers above them and bonuses shown below them, as well as the orange Simmental cattle cards, with a counter how many are left.
- Above the map, you see four train cards with 2-3 actions that can be accessed via the Train action on building F.
- Next to the train, you see the stack of bonus tiles (with a bell icon) and three face-up tiles beside it, as well as the stack of objective tiles (with a horn icon) and, also, three face-up tiles beside it. These can be gained via the Train action on building F.
- To the right of the map, there is the building display, featuring the six types of buildings; each building has a counter showing how many are left. For details on the building cost, click the question mark icon. Buildings can be built on building E.
- Below the buildings, there is the cattle market, featuring the four types of cattle, also showing how many of each type are left. Note the question mark icon that tells you how much each cattle card costs. Cattle can be acquired on building D.
- Last, but not least, below the cattle market, you see the four types of workers and how many of each type are left. These can be hired on building B.
Personal Display
Your personal play area features:
- At the top, your draw pile, showing how many cards it contains, and your hand of cattle cards (four at the start). As the game progresses, your discard pile will be shown to the right of your hand.
- Below that, on the left, you see your player board featuring 4 auxiliary actions on the left, of which 4 spaces are covered with a disc; in the middle, you see three bonuses you can unlock; and, on the right, you see your certificate track, which shows how many certificates you will be able to spend in El Paso (see El Paso action).
- Finally, to the right of your player board, you see how many workers of each type you have at your disposal. Note that workers have bonuses printed at the top that you can use at any time on your turn (you will see a button in the status bar reminding you of that).
The player panel in the side bar shows:
- With live scoring enabled, your score below your username.
- Below that, your cash, your herder’s range, the number of permanent certificates, the value on your certificate track, and how many exchange tokens you have.
- Any objective tiles you have, see Setup and Train action.
Setup
As part of setup, in reverse play order, players pick one of the face-up objective tiles, which will be placed in your player panel in the side bar. A little icon will show which objectives you meet (for now, you will see an X for the first one you take).
Your Turn
Your turn comprises three phases in this order: movement, actions, and cleanup. At any point during your turn, you may discard workers from your play area for their printed bonus or use exchange tokens to improve your hand. Note the buttons on the right of the status bar informing you of these options.
Movement
On your first turn, simply pick any starting building except El Paso (B-G). Later, you may pick any building in clockwise order within your herder’s range, which is 3 at the start (see player panel in the side bar). Empty spaces do not count. If the trail forks, the game will consider the more advantageous option.
Actions
Carry out the actions of the building you chose during movement. You may always choose to take an auxiliary action instead of the building actions. If you land on an opponent’s building (see Construct a Building below for details), you can only take an auxiliary action.
Auxiliary Actions
The left side of your player board features 4 auxiliary actions: two are available from the start and can be improved, the other two need to be unlocked first. Some buildings allow you to take an auxiliary action as part of their effect (cogwheel icon).
The four auxiliary actions on the left of your player board, from top to bottom, are:
- Gain $1. If unlocked, gain $3 instead.
- Gain 1 certificate on your certificate track (max. 4).
- Exchange 1 card (same as using an exchange token, see there). If unlocked, you may exchange a second time.
- Trash 1 card from hand (i.e., remove it from play permanently). Unlocking this action costs $3.
Building Actions
These are some of the common building actions. Note that all these actions are optional and can be performed in any order. If in doubt or if an action is not listed here, check the tooltip or printed appendix.
- Discard Cattle for Money (B, D, and E): Discard the depicted cattle card to gain $2. Even if you have more of that cattle in hand, you can only discard one per action.
- Hire Workers (B):
- Pay $5 and pick a worker type from the central display; the worker will be immediately placed with your other workers.
- If you choose a wild worker (showing all three types), you must pay an additional $4.
- You can hire a second worker for an additional $8, but you must choose a different one than the first.
- You must pay $5 and $8 only on building B—other buildings and effects (e.g., trading post 9) may offer this action at no cost (except when choosing a wild worker—they always cost an additional $4).
- Each worker is worth 2 or 3 VP, as printed on the card.
- Buy Cattle (D):
- Pick a cattle from the cattle market and pay the indicated cost—from left to right, cattle cost $2/$4/$6/$8 and you must discard 1/2/3/4 cowboys (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.
- New cattle will be placed in your discard pile; you can only buy one cattle per action, even if you have more money and cowboys.
- Cattle are worth varying numbers of VP, as printed on the card.
- Construct a Building (E):
- Pick a building from the central display and pay the indicated cost—an amount of money and you must discard a number of builders (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.
- Then choose an empty space along the trail and pay the additional cost printed on the space, if any.
- If you already have a building on the map, you may upgrade it to a more valuable one by paying the difference between the two. The new building will then replace the old one and the old one will become available for building once again. When upgrading a building, you don’t have to pay the cost printed on the space again.
- You can build any building you can afford, but each player may only have at most 2 buildings on the map. Once you have 2 buildings, you can only upgrade them.
- Each building is worth a number of VP, as printed on the building.
- Use the Train (F):
- Pick a train card and pay the cost printed on the card—up to $8 and you must discard a number of engineers (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.
- Carry out the effect of the chosen train. When gaining an objective or bonus tile, you may take a face-up one or draw one from the respective stack.
- Objective tiles score at game end if you meet their condition. Every component in the game can only be assigned to one objective; for building requirements, you “spend” that many workers paid for buildings, not the building itself (i.e., you may complete more than two of those objectives).
- Bonus tiles provide a one-time bonus or a permanent effect. Among the permanent effects are the permanent certificate (with an infinity symbol) and the ability to count duplicate cattle cards at El Paso (see that action for details).
- Other building actions include: taking an auxiliary action (cogwheel symbol); gaining money or certificates; gaining exchange tokens (sometimes at a cost), cattle, or bonus/objective tiles; moving your herder along the trail to take another action.
El Paso Actions
When moving your herder, you can never move past El Paso. In El Paso, you must carry out the following actions in this order:
- You gain $5 and a Simmental cattle card that is placed on your discard pile. If the Simmental cattle pile on the map is empty, the first player to visit El Paso will place their herder on that space, gaining 2 VP during scoring; this will trigger the end of the game, with every other player taking one more action. Any later arrivals at El Paso do not place their herder on that space.
- The game will reveal your hand to everyone else and compute your breeding value, i.e., add up the numbers at the top of the cattle cards in your hand; each type of cattle will only contribute once, i.e., duplicates are ignored unless you have the appropriate bonus tile.
- The game will also add any permanent certificates you have (with an infinity symbol) and ask you how many of the certificates on your certificate track you’d like to add. Note that you may also discard builders from your worker area to purchase additional certificates, as per that worker’s printed bonus action.
- Once you confirm the total, you must choose a trading post on the map with the same or a lower value and a disc from your player board, which will be placed on that space. If that space has a bonus action, you will now take it. Note that you may have at most one disc per space, except spaces 0, 12, and 16. Discs of other players don’t matter. To remove a disc from the middle of your player board, you must pick a trading post of value 10 or more. Spaces 10 and up are worth VP at game end.
- Finally, your hand is discarded.
Cleanup
At the end of your turn, the game will draw up to your hand limit, which is 4 at the start. Any cards you did not use this turn will remain in your hand.
Scoring
See El Paso Actions, bullet point 1 for how the game ends. After each other player has had their final turn, players will score:
- 1 VP per $5—on your final turn, you will have the option
- VP from building tiles on the map
- VP from trading posts with your discs—each disc counts
- VP from cattle + 2 VP if your herder is on the Simmental space
- VP from workers
- VP from bonus tiles
- VP from your objective tiles—the game determines automatically the best outcome if you have competing tiles. Each component can only attribute to one objective tile; for building objectives, the total of workers spent on buildings is considered, not the buildings themselves. You don’t lose VP for failed objectives.