Great Western Trail - Playthrough & Review (Pfister Series) 

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!

Thank you so much for your kind words and support! We're excited to make some more videos!

HI Robert, glad that this worked out timing wise haha! Hope this video helps you get the game to the table sooner!

Thank you for your support Jessica, we are having a lot of fun playing through all of these titles! :-)

Thank you for being patient with us lol! I wish we were both better at this one haha

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! :-)

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 :-(

Glad you enjoyed it!

Hi Jeff, thanks for checking it out. Glad we made the playthrough entertaining@ ;-)

Glad you enjoyed it! Monique has no mercy... lol

I wish I could remember all the details from the expansion. So many people really like it!

We're having a blast doing it! Thanks for your support Robert. :-)

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.

Big Brother is Watching! 130!!?? Wow show me your waysssss! haha

Hey Thomas, you're totally right about that! Moving around the board is super nostalgic ;-). We hope to do Maracaibo justice lol

Glad you like it! Have you played all of his titles?

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?

That is a very fair point that we hadn't considered. Thank you for that definition!

Thank you!

Crazy how 4 years have gone by since this was released!!

Thanks for coming!!

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?

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.

Everyone speaks so highly of the expansion, we gotta play with it again soon!

Expansion is really good opens the game up to new strategies. Hope you get to experience it soon.

Thank you so much!

Glad you enjoy it, it's a very creative and solid design!

Thank you! We’re looking forward to releasing that one soon =)

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.

Lol, a product of talking before thinking! hahahaha

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 :)

Hello!

We've played it once but for some reason can't remember much about it!

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!

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 ;-)

We're excited to play Maracaibo a few more times before we film it! :)

lol Monique wins 4/5 games we play!! She so hard to beat

@@BeforeYouPlay I feel your pain my friend 😀

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.

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. :-)

Yello!

Hi!

Haha definitely ahead of the curve!

Right, cannot remember if we mentioned it in the teach. I know we utilized it in the playthrough however.

We have plans to when copies become available!

@@BeforeYouPlay Amazing!

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.

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.

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.

Yes we are! Hopefully this week

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.

Fair enough! What was your reason if you don't mind?

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

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