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Heavy Euro2022
Great Western Trail: Argentina box art

Box art via BoardGameGeek

Heavy Euro

Great Western Trail: Argentina

A leaner, meaner cattle drive that quietly outgrew the game it came from.

3.7 out of 53.7/5

Designed by Alexander Pfister · 2022

Players1-4
Play time75-150 min
WeightHeavy
Ages12+
Check price on AmazonAffiliate link · supports the site, costs you nothing extra
The verdict

If you loved the original Great Western Trail, this is the deeper, sharper version of the same brain itch, and plenty of players think it's the better one. Just don't hand it to a newcomer as their first heavy euro.

Best for: Experienced euro players who already know and like the original

The full review

What it is

Here's the pitch. You're driving cattle across Argentina, building up a deck of cows, hiring workers, and looping a rondel-style trail that ends with delivery in Buenos Aires. If you've played the original Great Western Trail, the bones are familiar. The twist is you now ship cattle by boat instead of loading trains, which means you need grain to feed them on the journey, and that one change ripples through every plan you make.

The catch

Grain comes from farmers, a fourth worker type you recruit by lending out your cattle. It's clever, and it pushes you down trickier forks of the trail you might have skipped before. The catch is tired cows: helping farmers clogs your deck with exhausted cards that drag your points down unless you manage them. Reviewers keep landing on the same word, opaque. There's a lot talking to a lot, and your first game or two will feel like wading through it.

Who it's for

So who's this for? Not a newcomer. Reviewers are blunt that it's heavier and more nuanced than the original, with long sessions and plenty of room for analysis paralysis. But for people who already know this system, the verdict is striking. Calls of evolution, not revolution show up again and again, along with this being the better of the two games. More paths, fewer solved strategies, more ways to gloriously botch it. That's the appeal.

What other players say

This write-up is grounded in real reviews and player discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:

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