Great Western Trail: New Zealand

Set up the main board in the center and the sea trail board above it. Randomly place 5 port captain tokens on the sea trail board. Place 8 neutral building tiles on their designated spots on the main board, with side A facing up (in subsequent games, these can be placed randomly). Place the bonus market token on the highest spot of the bonus market track. Separate worker, hazard, and bonus tokens into bags A and B. Draw 4 unique worker tokens from bag A and place them in the top row of the worker market. Draw 12-14 tokens (depending on player count) from bag A to fill hazard and worker spots on the main board, replacing any tokens that cannot be placed. Fill the bonus market track with tokens from bag B, leaving 1-2 columns empty for fewer than 4 players. Place 2 tokens from bag A and 2 from bag B on the Wellington development area. Shuffle sheep cards and place them face down, then draw 9-14 cards (depending on player count) to form the sheep market, grouped by color. Shuffle objective cards, place them face down, and reveal 4. Place deck-building cards (sheepdogs, ferries, kingfishers) in separate face-up stacks. Prepare general supplies of money and exchange tokens. Each player chooses a color, takes their player board, places 16 discs, 10 warehouses, and markers for certificates and gold on their board. Place the ship on the starting space of the sea trail. Choose a starting player and distribute starting money and sheep cards according to player order.

The objective of Great Western Trail: New Zealand is to accumulate the most victory points by the end of the game. Players achieve this by strategically moving their shepherd across the board, managing and improving their sheep herd through deck-building, delivering diverse sheep to Wellington for profit and points, and utilizing various actions to construct buildings, hire workers, and advance on different tracks. Optimizing the timing of deliveries, efficient resource management, and adapting to the evolving game state are crucial for success.

A player's turn is divided into three phases: Phase A (Move Shepherd), Phase B (Perform Actions), and Phase C (Draw Cards). In Phase A, the player must move their shepherd at least one space along the path, up to their current movement limit. Moving through or stopping on spaces with other players' buildings or hazard tokens may incur costs. In Phase B, the player performs actions corresponding to the space where their shepherd stopped. These can be local actions on buildings, single auxiliary actions from their player board, or a delivery action if they reach Wellington. Actions may have costs or requirements. In Phase C, the player draws sheep cards from their personal draw pile until they reach their hand limit. If the draw pile is empty, they shuffle their discard pile to form a new draw pile.

Victory points are primarily calculated at the end of the game. Players score points for remaining money (1 VP per 5 coins), points printed on their private buildings, points from delivered sheep (based on their position in ports and associated bonuses), points from collected hazard and bonus tokens, points for their position on the pioneer track, and points from fulfilled objective cards. Unfulfilled objective cards may result in negative points. The player with the highest total victory points wins the game, with ties broken by remaining money.

The game concludes immediately when a player, after completing a delivery to Wellington and placing a new bonus token on the bonus market, causes the bonus market token to be pushed off the board. The current player finishes their turn, and then all other players get one final turn (without Phase C, drawing cards). After these final turns, the game proceeds to the final scoring phase. All victory points are tallied, and the player with the highest score is declared the winner.