Great Western Trail is an excellent thematic game about rangling up some cattle, to sell in kansas city. You and up to 3 other players will move across a series of outposts and as you do, try and get the best possible cattle to sell in Kansas City
Great Western Trail is a eurostyle engine builder, where you will slowly be upgrading your cowboys, engineers, or builders which will allow you to buy better cattle, exapnd your trade network, and build helpful outposts along the way. The themeing of Great Western Trail is fantastic as you move through the mid west landscape and encounter bandits or other obstacles with your trail of cattle behind you.
I highly recommend this game for people looking for a fun time where the game really allows you to perform unique strategies while staying competitive in the game. This game probably isn’t the best fit for first time boardgamers as the rules can be a bit heavy and there is alot of different mechanisms involved. That being said though, each turn is relativley simple and independent of one another (which gives you ample time to plan ahead), so if you can get over the learning curve you are in for a easy time playing this game.
Most games there will be a clear winner, though there can be surprsing comebacks on the last few turns. I have found in 3-4 player games, the battle for 2nd to be one of the most interesting, though I’ve never played the game with just 2 players. On average the game will take about an hour per player, and the first game will likely take you 4-5 hours as you will be referencing the rules frequently. If you haven’t played this game and are looking for something new with good theming, and interesting strategies I highly recommend checking this out!