Saddle up for Great Western Trail: Argentina!

Saddle up, folks. Great Western Trail: Argentina is the second game in the GWT trilogy, building on the mechanisms and themes of the original. It’s meatier, it’s thinkier, but is it…greater?

For a full lowdown on how GWT works, check out my previous review here. In brief, it’s a complex deck building and hand management game, where players have to manage resources and a hand of cows to become the best cowboy in the west. It was chock full of mechanisms like hazards that needed clearing, 3 types of workers that could be hired, and hand management, which all sought to help players sell a high-value herd of cattle.

Designer Alexander Pfister went back to the concepts he came up with in the original, and developed them further in GWT: Argentina.

Let’s start with hazards and bandits. In the original game, hazards and bandits served as roadblocks in the game. These are replaced by farmers in Argentina. Like bandits, farmers clog up the trail and grant players money when they are removed from the board. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg here. Enter: a new “resource” called strength. All cows are given a certain strength value, and some hireable workers also provide strength. This strength is used if players feel like helping the farmers on the trail.

When players land on a farmer, they can choose to help the farmer out. If they satisfy that farmer’s strength requirement (through workers providing strength and discarding cattle), players gain those farmers. These farmers can either be kept as is – worth a hefty 2 points each - or they can be hired permanently, being added to players’ tableaus just like builders, engineers, and cowboys. Farmers are crucial in Argentina, as they help produce yet another new resource: grain.

Grain is used when delivering cattle – and delivery has been completely remade here. Instead of a fixed set of cities that players deliver to, players instead load cattle onto boats, with some boats requiring grain to load the cattle. At fixed points in the game, certain boats set sail for distant ports. Players are provided yet another minigame here, where they can deliver their cattle within these ports for even more victory points in exchange for grain.

That’s a lot of new stuff in a game that was already pretty darn complex. GWT Argentina feels like base GWT, but with two or three solid expansions thrown into the mix. However, these expansions are beautifully implemented. Everything mixes well into the existing formula, and I love how these new mechanisms interact with one another.

More than ever before, players are unable to do everything they want to do in a single game, meaning decisions are more important than ever. Several kinks and balance issues have been ironed out, leading to a much more cohesive experience. I love how bit-part things like bandits were fully fleshed out, but in a way that blends in with everything else. The new delivery system makes choosing a delivery spot another tough choice, where in the previous game you’d usually just go as high up as you can manage. Furthermore, the port delivery mini game adds a second layer of complexity that can also give you a hefty boost to your engine early on.

The biggest sticking point here is this massive complexity hike. Original GWT was perfect in terms of complexity for me. It tickled my brain plenty but wasn’t totally exhausting to play. Argentina is far more complex. There have been many points where steam started pouring out of my ears when thinking about what to do. I previously said that GWT was an excellent choice for players who want their first big complex game, but the same cannot be said about Argentina. This feels like the next step above base GWT. I also feel like Argentina benefits from higher player counts even more than base GWT. More players in the game means more farmers clogging up the board, and fiercer competition at the ports. These new exciting additions aren’t as exciting at lower player counts, and this includes the solo variant included in the game. Much like the previous solo iteration, it provides a solid experience for the lone ranger looking for a quick GWT fix. I just wish they added a way to play with multiple AI players to really fill that board!

So, should you get Argentina?

If you loved base GWT, definitely consider picking this up. I’ve played GWT heaps of times, and while it’s still too early to tell, it just might replace original GWT for me. That said, the huge jump in complexity means that it’s also not totally unreasonable to have both!

Great Western Trail Argentina is a phenomenal game. The best way I can compare the two Great Western Trails is like this: I feel like Great Western Trail was a solid 9/10 that had a wider audience to appeal to. Great Western Trail: Argentina, one the other hand, is a 9.5-10/10 game, but one that can only live up to that potential with a smaller group of players.

For me, I can’t tell just yet which I’ll end up liking more.

The only way to find out is to keep on playing – and I’m not complaining.