A Beginner's guide to Great Western Trail: How to Win

[@dfeiler1]

Great job with this! I've never even played Great Western Trail but I watched the whole video. Your presentation style is super fun. I'll have to give the game a try now. Thanks!

[@UpUrPlay]

Thanks man, I'm glad to hear that! Check out some other beginner's strategy videos on the channel, I might trick you into buying too many great games 😂

[@peacefulmatthias5206]

I managed to pull off the same builder strategy as you did with 10b + 8b. It resulted in finishing with double the points of the other players, also ringing the bell! I was the only person who went to Kansas City (2 times) and I didn't buy a single cow the whole game. This really is thanks to your video that gave me better insights in how to play. Thank you :)

[@UpUrPlay]

You're welcome! I'm missing the 8B 20B combo since it's not there anymore in the 2nd edition. It was very powerful! I'm happy you enjoyed my content, keep playing this awesome game ;)

[@DCAMM720]

This is exactly what I needed and a lot of this still applies to 2nd edition. Went up against a guy who ended up with like 150 points and I just didn't understand how he was beating us so badly but it's mainly due to playing exactly how this video said. I went too slow, focused too much on selling at different locations, and was always broke. Next time I'll get him though lol

[@steveg9939]

Thank you. As with your Maracaibo video, this was very helpful to understand the flow of the game and the common pitfalls for players.

[@patleaf2432]

i started playing arnak a year ago. Looked on YT for some strategy advice as i go high ranked. Now Im playing GWT and Look who it is! Im here for it, i think your Arnak videos were fantastic, They were all i ever used (granted its a few hours) but yeah i did really well with them. Elite ranked.

[@UpUrPlay]

Great Pat! I like exploring games in depth and sharing my conclusions. I'm happy you and other people find them useful

[@gwaedin]

Great job Mario! I think this is a really useful primer for GWT beginners. If you've never played it, give it a try: it is a wonderful game!

[@johnkhanwayne6988]

Just tried the double Kansas City strategy. Took everyone's by surprise paired it with some nice buys on ranchers and easily won the game.

[@chrisrogers2343]

Looking for the “how to play builders” video but am not locating it. Was one posted? Thanks! These are great.

[@UpUrPlay]

Nope, it hasn't been posted yet. It's the video I'm asked about the most, but it's also the less "beginner's friendly" one. Hopefully soon enough I'll be able to get it done!

[@kaikulimu]

Thanks so much! Great advice to the beginners

[@UpUrPlay]

Thanks! After all these years I think it helped the community a bit. It's probably the video I'm most proud of

[@joakimglimsjo1229]

Great video! A good starting point to get a glimpse into some more competitive play and theory.

[@raymondfontaine2693]

Good video, easy to understand. I learned some things. Super excited to see this going to BGA!!!

[@DrozSmash]

Top notch tips; really great strategic ideas. Side note - I’m getting more ads on this vid than nearly any other and they are getting pushed every several minutes. Not sure what KZbin is doing here.

[@UpUrPlay]

I gain no money whatsoever from my videos and I don't put any ad on any one of my videos! If you see ads it is because KZbin chose to put them on the video. Lol my channel is so small I've never planned on gaining any income from it. If you know how to take these ads you see away, please let me know!

[@DrozSmash]

@@UpUrPlay excellent input and good to know. The content is great and I don’t know why I’m getting served so many ads on these specific videos! Must be a KZbin “feature”. Thanks again for the great content and have a blessed weekend!!

[@benjaminl.9060]

Hey, thx for the amazing video (loved your Barrage & Arnak stuff too). What do you think of delivering to Kansas in the 2nd edition? Thx for your work.

[@UpUrPlay]

Thanks for the kind words Benjamin. I still deliver to KC once and more often twice, but it's definitely more possible now to place a risk there just once or even never, in rare games. 3 deliveries to KC are a thing of the past though, at least in my opinion

[@shortydancer]

Thanks for the video! If there are three main strategies, what happens when there are 4 players and two of them have to fight over one of them?

[@UpUrPlay]

It's one of the most beautiful things of the game, and the reason I love 4p gwt games the most. The strategy that's the strongest on the setup gets pursued by two players, which makes the overall game very interesting for everybody since it's not always clear who's going to win. It's very rare there are two engineers players, but two builders or two cowboys happens all the time

[@shortydancer]

@@UpUrPlay cool! Do you have a video on your thoughts of 1st vs 2nd edition?

[@UpUrPlay]

@@shortydancer nope, I didn't make any. The short version would be: the 2nd edition is better from a gameplay point of you, but if you already own the first one there's no need to buy it

[@DevanHarris76]

With the second edition out now, do you think that the KC stop is still worth it now that it only gives you 4 money?

[@UpUrPlay]

It is indeed the first time you go deliver, it can still be worth it the second time. But for sure the 2nd edition makes those choices more interesting

[@CanHammer]

great video. General tips about objectives? how aggressively should you play to get and achieve objectives?

[@UpUrPlay]

Hey thanks! Objectives are a very secondary part of the game, don't worry too much about them. They can be relevant, but the overall strategy is way way way more important

[@sayanpatra8898]

Great presentation. Loved the video. Does most of these hold up in the 2nd edition and Argentina? Also, where do you find competitive players? Is there a discord channel?

[@UpUrPlay]

There's a discord channel, but it's also relatively easy to find them in tournaments on BGA. Yes, all the principles shared in the video hold true in all the GWT series games as far as I can tell!

[@codyguindon2090]

Great video thanks MariO!

[@peacefulmatthias5206]

Thank you for this outstanding video. I can see you have a deep understanding of this great game!

[@irdifk]

It seems that somewhere you have discouraged using the aux action to cull (eliminate) cards from your deck - getting a 'skinnier' deck. Would you elaborate a little on why you think this is a bad strategy? Thx!

[@UpUrPlay]

@@irdifk yep of course. It's because the game really isn't a full deckbuilder. You don't cycle your deck enough times to justify the incremental bonus provided by a culled deck. The cost to take that action is also quite steep. Finally, in many games you won't purchase any cows, and culling the deck wouldn't make sense

[@irdifk]

@@UpUrPlay Perfect, makes a lot of sense. Thx for your insights!

[@fernandomoritz]

It's-a me, Mario!

[@Ddboyz465]

By the way, this is based on 4 players right? Ive only played 3 player game with my group and the game is a lot slower in general

[@UpUrPlay]

It is not. While I definitely play more at 4p than at 3p, I have more than 100 3p games under my belt too. The principles of the video apply to 3p games too. Try to go faster and hit Kansas city early on your playgroup too, and test out the tips by yourself! :)

[@puszkinowski]

Im a casual player and have played gwt few times, greart game :) Me and my friends always treated delivery to Kansas as very bad thing, as perspective of losing 6 points for each disc seemed as strong punishment.

[@BoardInTheHouseBGAplayer]

2 misconceptions I had been thinking wrong: 1) I always thought cowboys were overpowered! Everyone in my playgroup was dead set on building their deck of cows to get those highest number cows. 2) I'm always stopping at every cool building and getting small bonuses here and there. What a Red Herring! You've shown you should use all your movement.

[@UpUrPlay]

You might want to watch a playthrough on top of this video if you want to see how it is veri possible to win without cowboys, check them out ;)

[@BoardInTheHouseBGAplayer]

@@UpUrPlay ok I'll check those out!

[@ricardorix73]

how many times should you do the double worker hire, just the 1st loop, or every loop?

[@UpUrPlay]

As it's often the case, it depends. Most of the time if you can do it, you should probably do it. But it depends on what else you need to accomplish during that specific loop

[@melkoinenveikko1286]

Question: what do you think about Maracaibo? I've been thinking of buying it for a while.

[@UpUrPlay]

I like it quite a bit! It takes more time than get though, so it doesn't hit the table as often

[@melkoinenveikko1286]

@@UpUrPlay Thank you for the message! I've read mixed reviews about the game. My main concerns are that the game would start repeating itself quickly and be strategically shallow.

[@UpUrPlay]

@@melkoinenveikko1286 nah I wouldn't say it's shallow. It's less strategic than gwt, but gwt is one of the most strategic games I know and it does so while still being quite interactive. So... It's not gwt but it's a good game. My only gripe with it is again time length , the refill your hand phase can take s bit if you play "competitively"

[@jeffus]

You didn’t talk about objectives. I’ve been playing Maracaibo solo, and Quests seem important and they seem similar to objectives.

[@UpUrPlay]

It's because they're not as important as Quests. They're an incidental way to gain points most of the time, collateral to your main strategy that revolves around one kind of workers. In most games you'll end up with 1-2 objectives fulfilled and that's fine. It's also very possible to win games with no objective done at all. They're a nice way to gain some points from low deliveries though, so keep that in mind!

[@Coyotek4]

Nice birthday gift! :) (I do stink at this game, so I'll take anything that could help.)

[@UpUrPlay]

You're welcome! Happy ranching ;)

[@TheShpriest]

wait a minute. Until I watched this video, we had 120-140 points for the winner for four players, even in the first and second games, when we first bought the game. and you say that with your technique you can win with a total of 90 points?

[@UpUrPlay]

Even less than that. What matters in GWT is how fast players go. If you get up to 140 points it's because you all go very slow and take a total of 30+ actions in a game. Competitive games are over in 24 moves per player on average

[@TheShpriest]

@@UpUrPlay thank you, now i see.

[@adriandna8528]

Hello, I am a player from China. In China, we prefer to paly this game with Northern Railroad expansion（and the Station master promos，building11 & 13，Gambling table promo）, with that the game will be more complex and more fun. But I find that you seem to prefer base game. Why not try Northern Railroad expansion?

[@UpUrPlay]

Hey there Adrian. Is it everybody in China that plays with the expansion or just you and your playgroup? :) The gambling table promo is just for fun, I've never used it. The two extra Buildings aren't my cup of tea, one of them is bonkers and Builders don't really need any help. I use the extra Station Master tile promos every now and then. As per the expansion, that's probably the question I've been asked the most. I think it makes the game worse, ruining the fine balance that can be found in the base game. That said GWT is still a great game. I don't hate the expansion, and if a friend of mine asks me to play with it I can do that. I won't ever choose it myself though, I don't think

[@adriandna8528]

@@UpUrPlay Thanks for your reply！I only know the people who play online（on boardgamefiesta.com/ and tabletop simulator on STEAM)，these people prefer to play this game with the expansion and all the promos. And I think the gambling table is an important promo, which provide a good way to exchange your handcards(and the cards on table are temporary removed), and remove your fourth worker tiles(to use the powerful action again), and for cowboys strategy, is a rare way to handle the same cards with 3, 4 or 5 breeding value(and win some money). With the expansion, the craftsman strategy is a little bit too strong, but is still depend on the setup of the game. I don’t have a deepen understanding about the strategy of base game, as you said it’s more balance, maybe I should to play the base game more.

[@TheShpriest]

in fact, the secret to victory is engineers (no more than 4-5 are needed) and 2 cowboys to buy only one 5 card and a pair of 3-4. and then the entire path should consist of moving the locomotive and scrolling the deck. Every time you have the opportunity, you need to take a double action to take/discard a card. and literally after 3 rings to Kansas you will almost always have 18 on your hand (hand extension is required). 3-4 disks on last city guarantee.

[@UpUrPlay]

That's not the secret to victory at all. If it was the game would be incredibly boring. The strategy you're talking about is pretty slow and would probably lose in most scenarios to a good builder strategy. You don't have to trust me, just go check the BGA games and expand your view of the game 🙂

[@TheShpriest]

@@UpUrPlay hm, may be you right. I'll try the builder's strategy if possible next game. but in our gaming cell many tried to become builders, but in the end they lost.

[@joshomgosh4321]

Yesterday I built only two buildings and tried to get many cows and move forward with the train quickly and won by far with 120 points. So you cannot say buildings is most important, there are other strategies

[@UpUrPlay]

Building is the most important in that everybody has to do it in competitive games. Also 120 points means everybody was moving very slow, competitive games are normally below 80 points. I encourage you to try the game more. Getting cows is definitely a good strategy, don't worry

[@danielfontecchio9222]

I always describe gwt as a hand manipulation game. The better you can filter out your hand to get a variety by the end the better you will do. Also I just got the second edition of the game and Kansas City is a little weaker. It gives you 4 instead of 6 dollars but you still lose 6 vp at the end of the game. I think they found it was too powerful.

[@UpUrPlay]

Yes, it was indeed too powerful. But I have to hard disagree: GWT is NOT a hand manipulation game at all. It is first and foremost a loop builder game. Managing your hand can be important, but it is far behind from setting up a proper loop and finding the right timing for your actions. You shouldn't take your actions depending on the cards in your hand: strategy is overall way more important than tactic in GWT.

[@krisgrish8886]

when leaving a like destroys the 69 ;(