Actions

Every action in Great Western Trail: discarding cattle, hiring workers and their immediate actions, placing and replacing buildings, buying cattle, removing hazards, trading with the Indians, objectives, auxiliary actions and the seven neutral buildings.

An action looks the same wherever it appears — on a neutral building, your own building, an objective card, a station master tile or your player board.

Requirements and rewards

Many actions show a requirement (red: red arrows or numbers) and a reward (green and white). Meet the requirement to get the reward. The most common requirement is discarding cattle: put the exact card(s) shown from your hand onto your discard pile. A card shown by colour and number means that breed; a grey card means any. Each action is done once per visit, however often you could meet it.

Rewards: dollars from the bank; your certificate marker 1 space forward (or up to 2), never past your temporary certificate limit; your engine forward on the railroad.

Hire a worker

Choose one worker in the job market, pay its cost and put it on the leftmost free space of its row on your player board.

• Workers in the row with the job market token are not available yet.
• A worker costs the amount printed at the right of its row (4 to 10 dollars), changed by the action icon: −0 no change, −2 costs 2 more, +1 costs 1 less.
• A full row cannot take another worker.
• If the space you fill shows an immediate action, use it now or lose it.
• At the end, each worker on the 5th or 6th space of a row is worth 4 .

You start with one cowboy, one craftsman and one engineer printed on your board.

Immediate actions on your player board

Row	Space	Immediate action
Cowboys	4th	Remove a hazard, free
Cowboys	6th	Trade with the Indians
Craftsmen	4th and 6th	Place a building, paying only 1 dollar per craftsman
Engineers	2nd	Discard a Jersey: 1
Engineers	3rd	Discard a Jersey: 2 dollars
Engineers	4th	Hire a worker for 2 dollars less
Engineers	5th	Discard a Jersey: up to 2
Engineers	6th	Discard a Jersey: 4 dollars

Place a private building

Choose one of your private buildings above your board and either:

• put it on any empty building space of the trail, or
• replace one of your buildings already on the trail with a higher one.

You need at least as many craftsmen as the number at the building’s top left, and you pay 2 dollars per craftsman needed. To replace, you only need — and pay for — the difference; the old tile goes back to the box for good. Buildings always keep the side chosen at setup.

Neutral building B is the only neutral source of this action; the other is your craftsman row (1 dollar per craftsman).

Buy cattle

Take cattle cards from the cattle market onto your discard pile. What you may buy depends on your cowboys — each cowboy is used once per action — and the prices on the board:

Split your cowboys over these options as you like. You may add cards and buy in any order, and adding may push the market beyond its normal size. You only buy what is in the market.

Remove a hazard

Take one hazard tile of your choice from any hazard section and keep it in front of you. Pay the cost shown on the icon if there is one (otherwise it is free). Each hazard shows 2, 3 or 4 . If all sections are empty, nothing happens.

Trade with the Indians

Take one teepee of your choice from the Indian trade section and keep it. Gain or pay the money shown above its space (from −3 to +10); a negative teepee must be paid in full. If the section is empty, nothing happens.

Gain an objective card

Take one face-up card from the general objective display (refill it at once) or the top card of the objective stack, and put it face up on your discard pile. See objective cards.

Move your cattleman

Some buildings move your cattleman forward up to the number shown, at least 1. You pay hands as usual, and you take phase B again where you stop — without first refilling your hand.

Auxiliary actions

Your player board has five auxiliary actions. Each is locked while both its disc spaces hold discs; clearing one space unlocks it as a single action, clearing both allows the double (its cost and reward doubled — not two different actions). The first two start unlocked.

Action	Single	Double
Money	Gain 1 dollar	Gain 2 dollars
Cards	Draw 1 card, then discard 1	Draw 2, then discard 2
Certificate	Pay 1 dollar, engine 1 back, 1	Pay 2 dollars, engine 2 back, up to 2
Engine	Pay 1 dollar, engine 1 forward	Pay 2 dollars, engine 2 forward
Thin the herd	Engine 1 back, remove 1 hand card from the game	Engine 2 back, remove 2 hand cards

An auxiliary action taken instead of a location’s local actions is always single. A building’s auxiliary icon lets you choose single or double.

The neutral buildings

Tile	Local actions
	A: discard a Guernsey for 2 dollars · hire a worker · hire another worker for 2 dollars more. The free hire and the hire costing 2 dollars are separate choices: either can come first, and you may take either or both. FAQ
	B: discard a Dutch Belt for 2 dollars · place a private building
	C: 1 or an objective card · engine forward up to your engineers
	D: trade with the Indians or pay 2 dollars for engine up to 2 forward · a single or double auxiliary action
	E: discard a Black Angus for 2 dollars · buy cattle
	F: discard two cattle of the same breed for 4 dollars · remove a hazard for 7 dollars
	G: engine forward up to your engineers · a single or double auxiliary action

Your private buildings are listed with their actions in Cards & Components.