Game End and Scoring
How Great Western Trail ends when the job market fills, the final turns, the eleven scoring categories, objective cards and station master tasks.
End of the game
The end is triggered when a player places a worker on the last space of the job market during subphase 2 or 3 in Kansas City: the job market token moves out along the red arrow and that player takes it.
- If it happened in subphase 2, they still carry out subphase 3 but may not choose a worker (no room left); with only workers left there, they skip it.
- They finish subphases 4 and 5 and refill the foresight spaces. That was their last turn.
- Every other player takes one final turn. Anyone reaching Kansas City carries out all five subphases but may not take workers in subphases 2 and 3, and still refills the foresight spaces.
Then the game ends.
Final scoring
Score each player on the score pad:
| # | Category | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Money | 1 per 5 dollars |
| 2 | Buildings | The points printed on your private buildings on the board |
| 3 | Cities | The points you unlocked on city crests and green arrows (negative ones subtract; the total may be negative) |
| 4 | Stations | The points beside each station with your disc |
| 5 | Hazards | The points printed on your hazard tiles |
| 6 | Cattle | The points printed on the cattle cards in your whole deck |
| 7 | Objective cards | See below |
| 8 | Station master tiles | Each tile’s own task |
| 9 | Workers | 4 per worker on the 5th or 6th space of a row |
| 10 | Disc space | 3 if you cleared the second step-limit disc |
| 11 | Job market token | 2 for the player who has it |
Most points wins; a tie is a shared victory.
Objective cards
You gain objective cards from actions and city arrows; they go onto your discard pile and reach your hand later.
Playing one. On your turn — before phase A, or before or after any one action in phase B (never in the middle of an action, never in phase C) — put it in your objective area below your board and use or skip its immediate action (top left):
| Immediate action | Effect |
|---|---|
 3 | Move your cattleman up to 3 steps, ignoring hands. You may not use the location where you stop and may not enter Kansas City. Before phase A: you then move normally from there. In phase B: your phase B ends and you go to phase C |
| Draw 3 | Draw up to 3 cards, then discard as many |
 2 | Gain 2 dollars |
 2 or 3 | Move your engine up to 2 or 3 spaces |
 | A single or double auxiliary action |
Scoring. At the end, look through your deck for objective cards you never played: for each, either put it in your objective area now (without its action) or remove it. Every card in your objective area scores its points if all its tasks are met, or loses its penalty if not (the starting objective has no penalty). Each task you meet counts for one card only — two cards asking for a hazard need two hazards.
| Task | Needs |
|---|---|
| Building | 1 private building of yours on the board |
| Green / blue teepee | 1 teepee of that colour in front of you |
| Hazard | 1 hazard tile of any kind |
| Station | 1 of your discs on a train station |
| Card 3 / 4 / 5 | A cattle card in your deck of breeding value 3, a West Highland (4), a Texas Longhorn (5) |
| San Francisco | 1 of your discs on San Francisco |
Station master tasks
| Tile | Points at the end |
|---|---|
| Workers | 1 per worker in your worker section, printed ones included |
| Certificates | 3 per 2 certificates (temporary and permanent); only complete pairs score |
| Hazards | 3 per pair of hazard tiles; only complete pairs score |
| Objectives | 3 per 2 objective cards in your objective area, fulfilled or not |
| Teepees | 3 per pair of 1 green and 1 blue teepee |
Hazards and teepees count here even if they also met objective tasks.
Special cases
- Money is unlimited; use a substitute if the bank runs out.
- If the objective stack runs out, the display is not refilled.
- You may thin your deck as much as you like; with too few cards you simply hold fewer.
- If you must place a disc on a white-corner space but have only dark-corner discs left, use a dark-corner one. If you must place one and cannot (none left, or you cannot pay), take one of your discs back from a station of your choice.