El Paso at the end of the 19th century: five railroad companies have connected the Sun City to their network and made it a major hub for the cattle trade. Take on the role of ranchers of that time and bring your best cattle to El Paso to earn money and victory points. Hire more cowboys, builders, and engineers to get closer to your goals.

Display

The central display at the top features:

• • The map with El Paso (building A at the top) and a clockwise trail connecting Neutral buildings B-G and empty spaces, appearing as a dashed line. In the center of the map, there are trading posts with numbers above them and bonuses shown below them, as well as the orange Simmental cattle cards, with a counter how many are left.
• • Above the map, you see four train cards, each with 2-3 actions that can be accessed at building F.
• • Below the train (or on the right, depending on scaling), you see the stack of bonus tiles (with a bell icon) and three face-up tiles beside it, as well as the stack of objective tiles (with a horn icon) and, also, three face-up tiles beside it. These can be gained at building F.
• • Below the map (or on the right, depending on scaling), there is the building display, featuring the six types of buildings; each building has a counter showing how many are left. For details on the building cost, click the question mark icon. Buildings can be placed/replaced on the map at building E.
• • Below the buildings, there is the cattle market, featuring the four types of cattle, also showing how many of each type are left. Note the question mark icon that tells you how much each cattle card costs. Cattle can be acquired at building D.
• • Last, but not least, below the cattle market, you see the four types of workers and how many of each type are left. These can be hired at building B.

Your personal play area features:

• • At the top, your draw pile, showing how many cards it contains, and your hand of cattle cards (four at the start). As the game progresses, your discard pile will be shown to the right of your hand.
• • Below that, on the left, you see your player board featuring 4 auxiliary actions on the left, of which 4 spaces are covered with a disc; in the middle, you see three bonuses you can unlock; and, on the right, you see your certificate track, which shows how many certificates you will be able to spend in El Paso (see El Paso action).
• • Finally, to the right of your player board, you see how many workers of each type you have at your disposal. Note that workers have bonuses printed at the top that you can use at any time on your turn (you will see a button in the status bar reminding you of that).

The player panel in the side bar shows:

• • With live scoring enabled, your score below your username.
• • Below that: your cash (coin = $); your cards in hand; your herder’s range
• • Below that: the number of permanent certificates; the value on your certificate track; how many exchange tokens you have; how many cards you have trashed (removed from the game)
• • Below that: the numbers of your Cowboy cards; Builder cards; Engineer cards; Wild worker cards
• • Below that: any Objective Tiles you have, see Setup and Train action.

Setup

As part of setup, in reverse play order, players pick one of the face-up objective tiles, which will be placed in your player panel in the side bar. A little icon will show which objectives you meet (for now, you will see an X for the first one you take).

Your Turn

Your turn comprises three phases in this order: movement, actions, and cleanup. At any point during your turn, you may discard workers from your play area for their printed bonus or use exchange tokens to improve your hand. Note the buttons on the right of the status bar informing you of these options.

Movement

On your first turn, simply pick any starting building except El Paso (B-G). Later, you may pick any building in clockwise order within your herder’s range, which is 3 at the start (see player panel in the side bar). Empty spaces do not count. If the trail forks, the game will consider the more advantageous option.

Actions

Carry out the actions of the building you chose during movement. You may always choose to take an auxiliary action instead of the building actions. If you land on an opponent’s building (see Construct a Building below for details), you can only take an auxiliary action.

Auxiliary Actions

The left side of your player board features 4 auxiliary actions: two are available from the start and can be improved, the other two need to be unlocked first. Some buildings allow you to take an auxiliary action as part of their effect (cogwheel icon).

The four auxiliary actions on the left of your player board, from top to bottom, are:

• • Gain $1. If unlocked, gain $3 instead.
• • Gain 1 certificate on your certificate track (max. 4).
• • Exchange 1 card (same as using an exchange token, see there). If unlocked, you may exchange a second time.
• • Trash 1 card from hand (i.e., remove it from play permanently, max. 5 times). Unlocking this action costs $3.

Building Actions

These are some of the common building actions. Note that all these actions are optional and can be performed in any order. If in doubt or if an action is not listed here, check the tooltip or printed appendix.

El Paso Actions

When moving your herder, you can never move past El Paso. In El Paso, you must carry out the following actions in this order:

• 1. You gain $5 and a Simmental cattle card that is placed on your discard pile. If the Simmental cattle pile on the map is empty, the first player to visit El Paso will place their herder on that space, gaining 2 VP during scoring; this will trigger the end of the game, with every other player taking one more action. Any later arrivals at El Paso do not place their herder on that space.
• 2. The game will reveal your hand to everyone else and compute your breeding value, i.e., add up the numbers at the top of the cattle cards in your hand; each type of cattle will only contribute once, i.e., duplicates are ignored unless you have the appropriate bonus tile.
• 3. The game will also add any permanent certificates you have (with an infinity symbol) and ask you how many of the certificates on your certificate track you’d like to add. Note that you may also discard builders from your worker area to purchase additional certificates, as per that worker’s printed bonus action.
• 4. Once you confirm the total, you must choose a trading post on the map with the same or a lower value and a disc from your player board, which will be placed on that space. If that space has a bonus action, you will now take it. Note that you may have at most one disc per space, except spaces 0, 12, and 16. Discs of other players don’t matter. To remove a disc from the middle of your player board, you must pick a trading post of value 10 or more. Spaces 10 and up are worth VP at game end.
• 5. Finally, your hand is discarded.

Cleanup

At the end of your turn, the game will draw up to your hand limit, which is 4 at the start. Any cards you did not use this turn will remain in your hand.

Scoring

See El Paso Actions, bullet point 1 for how the game ends. After each other player has had their final turn, players will score:

• • 1 VP per $5—on your final turn, you will have the option to exchange
• • VP from building tiles on the map
• • VP from trading posts with your discs—each disc counts
• • VP from cattle + 2 VP if your herder is on the Simmental space
• • VP from workers
• • VP from bonus tiles

• • VP from your objective tiles—the game determines automatically the best outcome if you have competing tiles. Each component can only attribute to one objective tile; for building objectives, the total of workers spent on buildings is considered, not the buildings themselves. You don’t lose VP for failed objectives.