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Great Western Trail: New Zealand box art

Base game

Great Western Trail: New Zealand

Kritiku rating

Not rated

Published
2023
Reach
Well known
Players
1–4
Play time
75–150 min
Weight
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Ratings
0

How it plays

Earn the most points by improving your sheep deck, developing your station, hiring workers, and making valuable deliveries. On your turn, move along the trail, resolve the location you stop at, and manage cards, buildings, sheep, workers, and money before eventually reaching Wellington. The game ends when the workforce supply is exhausted; total points from deliveries, sheep, buildings, objectives, and other developments.

Main mechanics

  • Deck / bag building
  • Hand management
  • Set collection
  • Deck / bag building: You shape your own deck or bag of resources as you play.
  • Hand management: Timing which card to spend is the core puzzle.
  • Set collection: Scoring comes from completing the right combinations.
Full publisher description

Kia ora, and welcome to Great Western Trail New Zealand ! Towards the end of the 19th century, you established yourself as a runholder (owner of a sheep station) on the South Island of New Zealand. Recent years have seen your family farm prosper by diversifying your breeds of sheep and increasing the value of your wool. With the dawn of the new century, difficult challenges have arisen. You must acquire improved and valuable breeds of sheep to ensure the prosperity of your family business and the labourers who work for you. Decide whether to focus on your past strengths or to diversify into new ventures. Will the beginning of the 20th century be as rewarding as earlier years, or will the efforts of others surpass your strategy? Good luck, and kia kaha! In Great Western Trail New Zealand , you move your runholder along a trail that winds and forks from the lower left corner of the game board to Wellington in the upper right. Along your path, you perform actions that provide you with various ways to earn victory points. Each time your runholder reaches Wellington, you deliver sheep to a local or foreign trading post, which may also be worth victory points. Afterwards, your runholder continues its movement again. In an average game, your runholder will usually reach Wellington 5 or 6 times. All victory points are awarded at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points wins the game.

Criterion breakdown

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