Last Updated on July 3, 2025 by The Official Game Rules Team

El Paso is an engaging strategy board game where players compete to control the city by managing resources, building influence, and outmaneuvering opponents. This guide covers the essential rules to help you quickly learn how to play and enjoy the game.

Great Western Trail El Paso Board Game box product photo

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How to Play El Paso

Table of Contents (to return to the top of the page at any time, click the orange arrow button in the bottom right corner of the page)

Components
Game Summary
Objective
Setup
Player Setup
Gameplay
Actions
Hiring Workers and Worker Bonuses
Buying Cattle, Using Trains, and Constructing Buildings
Choosing and Using Auxiliary Actions
General Notes and Special Cases
Ending the Game and Scoring
Solo Variant

Game Summary

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. Ranchers from the surrounding parts of Texas and Mexico drive their cattle into the city to send them on their long journey to the north, east, and west of the United States.

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.

Obective of the Game

On your turn, you move your herder along a circular trail that keeps bringing you back to El Paso. Along your path, you perform actions that provide you with various ways to earn victory points; for example: placing common building tiles, buying cattle from the cattle market, hiring workers, and more.

Each time your herder reaches El Paso, you must deliver your cattle to a trading post. Afterwards, your herder continues its movement again from there.

At the end of the game, add up the victory points in your display. The player with the most victory points wins the game.

Game Board Setup

Place the game board in the middle of the table.
Place the El Paso tile on the El Paso space on the game board.
Then, place the 6 neutral building tiles on the 6 neutral building spaces (B to G):
- If this is your first game, match them to the corresponding spaces.
- In later games, shuffle and place them randomly on those same spaces.
Turn all train cards (1 locomotive and 3 wagons) to their front side and place them below the game board in ascending order by engineer number (1–4).
- Once familiar with the game, you may use the reverse sides (marked with ⚙).
Shuffle all 20 objective and 20 bonus tiles face down and form two separate piles near the train. This is called the train supply.
Draw 3 tiles from each pile and place them face up next to their respective stacks.
Place the coins and exchange tokens within reach of all players. This supply is called the bank.
Place the cattle board near the game board.
Then take all 32 market cattle cards, sort them by breed/color, and place them face up around the cattle board in their matching spaces.
Place the building board near the game board.
Then turn all common building tiles to their a-side. Stack and sort them by their worker cost (upper-left corner) and place them around the board near their corresponding spaces.
- Once familiar, you can use any number of b-sides instead.
Take all 48 worker cards, sort them by type (cowboys, builders, engineers, wild workers), and stack them face up near the game board.
These piles form the worker supply.
Place Simmental cattle cards face up on the Simmental space:
- 2-player game: 9 cards
- 3-player game: 14 cards
- 4-player game: 19 cards
  Return any unused Simmental cards to the box.

El paso Board game setup illustration from the original rulebook

Player Setup

Take a player board and place it in front of you.
- Take 4 worker cards (1 cowboy, 1 builder, 1 engineer, and 1 wild worker) and place them below your board in your worker area.
- Choose a color and take the components of that color:
  - 7 discs – Place them on your player board to cover the marked disc spaces. (Leave only the two cog symbols on the left uncovered.)
  - 2 property markers – Place them next to your player board.
  - 1 certificate marker – Place it on space 0 of your certificate track.
  - 1 herder – Keep it next to your player board for now.
Build your personal cattle deck:
- Take 10 cards in total:
  - 4 gray Criollo
  - 2 black Pineywoods
  - 2 white Galloway
  - 2 green Santa Gertrudis
- Shuffle these 10 cards into your herd deck, place it face down to the left of your player board, and draw 4 cards into your hand.
Determine the start player.
- The start player chooses one of the face-up objective tiles and immediately replaces it with the next tile from the objective pile.
- Other players then choose one tile in clockwise order, following the same replacement rule.
Receive starting capital from the bank:

1st player: 4 Dollars + 1 exchange token
2nd player: 5 Dollars + 1 exchange token
3rd player: 4 Dollars + 2 exchange tokens
4th player: 5 Dollars + 2 exchange tokens

El paso Player setup illustrations from the original rulebook

Gameplay

Beginning with the start player, players take turns in clockwise order.
Each turn consists of three phases that must be completed in the following order:

Move Phase
Action Phase
Draw Phase

Move Phase – Move your herder

Move your herder along the circular trail.
Each location on the trail costs 1 step to enter (ignore empty spaces without building tiles).
You must move at least 1 step, but no more than your current step limit (starts at 3, can be increased to 4 permanently or temporarily using cowboys).
You cannot pass El Paso. If your herder reaches El Paso, it must stop there and perform its actions.
Herders may share spaces—they do not block or affect each other.
On your first turn only, place your herder on any neutral building (not El Paso) and immediately perform the Action Phase for that location.

el paso board game move phase example illustration

What counts as a “location”?

Any building tile (neutral or common) on the trail is a location.
El Paso is a location.
Empty spaces without a tile are not locations and do not count for movement.

Action Phase – Take the action of the location you reached

Depending on where your herder lands, you have different options:

If it’s a neutral building or one of your own common buildings (with your property marker):
- Perform any or all of the depicted actions, once each, in any order.
- Or, instead, perform one auxiliary action.
If it’s a common building owned by another player:
- You cannot use the building’s actions.
- You may only perform one auxiliary action.
If it’s El Paso:
- You must carry out all 3 actions depicted on the El Paso tile (details in a later section).

Draw Phase – Replenish your hand

Your default hand size is 4 cards (can increase to 5 during the game).
If you end your turn with fewer cards than your hand size, draw cards from your draw stack to reach that number.
If your draw stack runs out, shuffle your discard pile to form a new stack.

Important: If you draw a worker card, place it directly in your worker area (not in your hand), and continue drawing until your hand is full.

Actions

Building tiles show one or more actions on their bottom half, separated by a full-length divider. During your Action Phase:

You may carry out each depicted action once, in any order.
You may skip any number of actions.
Some actions have a cost, indicated by a red-numbered coin symbol. You must pay this to use the action.

Gaining Money

Take the indicated number of Dollars from the bank.

Gaining Certificates

Move your certificate marker down on your certificate track—one space per certificate symbol.

You may not move past space 4.

El paso board game certificate illustration

Discarding Cattle for Money

You may discard a specific cattle card from your hand to gain money:

Place the card face up into your discard pile.
If you discard a matching card, gain the listed amount.
You cannot discard multiple cards of the same type for multiple payouts.
Some actions allow discarding any cattle or cattle of a certain value.

Examples:

Discard a cattle with breeding value 2 → gain $5
Discard any cattle → gain double its breeding value in Dollars

Gaining an Exchange Token

Gain one exchange token from the bank and place it in front of you.

Using an Exchange Token:

Can be used anytime during your turn.
Return it to the bank, then:
- Draw 1 card from your draw stack
- Immediately discard 1 card from your hand
You cannot combine exchange tokens to draw/discard multiple cards at once.

Alternate method:

Pay $1 to gain an exchange token (if you do not pay, you don’t receive it).

Hiring Workers and Worker Bonuses

Hiring a Worker

You may hire a worker card from the worker supply:

Choose one worker (cowboy, builder, engineer, or wild worker).
Pay the hiring cost shown on the action space.
Immediately place the worker card in your worker area (below your player board).

Important: Hiring a wild worker always costs an additional $4, no matter the base hiring cost.

Examples:

Hire a specific worker for $0 or a wild worker for $4.
Hire a specific worker for $5 or a wild worker for $9.
Hire two different workers for $13 total (if one is wild, add $4).

El paso board game hiring a worker illustration

Worker Bonus – Discarding Workers for Effects

At any time during your turn, you may discard a worker card from your worker area to gain their worker bonus:

Wild Worker: Gain $2
(Cannot copy other worker bonuses)
Cowboy: Increases your step limit during movement
- +1 step per cowboy discarded (but still only one location used for actions)
- Cannot move past El Paso
- May be used in Move Phase or auxiliary herder movement
Engineer: Gain $1
Builder: Pay $2 to move your certificate marker down 1 space

Note: Workers discarded for actions (e.g., buying cattle, using trains, placing buildings) do not provide their bonus. Worker bonuses apply only when you discard them outside of paying an action cost.

Buying Cattle, Using Trains, and Constructing Buildings

Buying Cattle from the Cattle Market

Choose 1 cattle card from the cattle market.
Discard the required number of cowboys (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.
Pay $2 per worker discarded to the bank.
Place the purchased cattle card into your discard pile.

You may only buy one cattle card per action.

El paso board game cattle example illustration

Using the Train

Choose 1 train card from the train supply.
Discard the required number of engineers (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.
Pay $2 per worker discarded to the bank.
Then, perform all the actions shown on the train card in any order.

Only one train card may be used per action.

Example: MaryMary discards 3 engineers and 1 wild worker, pays $8, and then:

Gains 3 certificates
Takes 1 train tile
Moves her herder 2 steps

Gaining an Objective or Bonus Tile

Choose 1 face-up tile from the train supply display, or draw one face-down from the stack.
Replace the taken tile with a new one from the respective pile.
To gain a bonus tile, pay $2.
If you don’t pay, you don’t receive the tile.

Constructing Buildings

To place a new common building tile:

Choose a building from the display.
Discard the required number of builders (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.
Pay $2 per worker discarded.
Pay any additional cost printed on the board space.
Place the building on an empty building space.
Place one of your unused property markers on the building.
You may not flip the building to its other side.

To replace one of your own buildings:

New building must require more builders than the old one.
Discard the difference in workers and pay the Dollar difference.
Return the old building tile to the display and place the new one on the same space.

Only one building may be placed or replaced per action.

Examples:

To place a building that requires 2 builders: discard 2 builders and pay $4.
To upgrade a building from 2-builder to 4-builder: discard 2 extra builders and pay the cost difference.

Choosing and Using Auxiliary Actions

Select one available auxiliary action from the Auxiliary Action section on the left side of your player board.
This section displays four different auxiliary actions.
- The first and third actions are available from the start.
- These can be improved by clearing their associated disc spaces.
- The other auxiliary actions remain locked until you clear their disc spaces and cannot be used before then.
Once unlocked, an auxiliary action may provide enhanced benefits. For example:
- Receiving 3 Dollars instead of 1.
- Performing 2 exchange actions instead of 1, which must be carried out one after the other (you can still choose to perform only one exchange action if you prefer).

For details on how to clear disc spaces, see the El Paso section on page 12.

Moving Your Herder

Move your herder to a new location along the trail.
You must move at least 1 step and up to the number indicated by the symbol.
You can use cowboys to increase your number of steps.
After moving, perform the actions at the location where your herder stops.
Note: You do not replenish your hand before moving your herder using this action.

Gaining and Getting Rid of Cattle

Gaining Cattle:
- Take the indicated cattle card from the cattle market and place it in your discard pile.
- No need to discard cowboys or pay money unless specified (e.g., pay 2 Dollars for a Shorthorn cattle card).
Getting Rid of Cattle:
- If you hold the depicted cattle card in your hand, you may remove it from play by returning it to the game box.
- You may remove one cattle card of any type from your hand this way.

El Paso Tile Actions

Your herder cannot move past El Paso and must stop here.
When stopping at El Paso, complete all three actions on the El Paso tile in order:
1. Take 5 Dollars from the bank.
2. Take one Simmental cattle card (if available) and place it face-up in your discard pile.
3. Delivery: Reveal your entire hand to other players and total its breeding value by adding the breeding values of each different type of cattle you hold. Each type counts only once regardless of quantity.

EL paso board game el paso actions illustration

Placing Discs on Trading Posts

After calculating your total breeding value, place a disc from your player board on a trading post on the game board.
Choose a trading post whose minimum breeding value matches your total.
You cannot place a disc on a trading post that already has your disc, except on spaces 0, 12, and 16.
Some discs require you to pay or gain money upon placement.
Clearing disc spaces unlocks abilities or improves auxiliary actions.
If you have no discs left to place, skip this step.
Placing discs on trading posts may trigger immediate rewards like money, objective tiles, or workers.
Discs on trading posts with breeding values of 10 or more score victory points at the end of the game.

General Notes and Special Cases

Money and exchange tokens are unlimited; substitute if the bank runs out.
If workers, cattle, buildings, objective, or bonus tiles run out, the spaces remain empty.
You may look through your discard pile anytime but not your draw stack.
You can check remaining Simmental cattle, worker cards, or buildings in the general supply.

End of the Game

The game ends when the last Simmental cattle card is taken, emptying that pile.
The game continues until the next player reaches El Paso, placing their herder on the empty Simmental space and completing El Paso actions (without taking a Simmental card).
Afterward, each other player gets one final turn.
Players reaching El Paso during their final turn do not take Simmental cattle cards or place their herder on the Simmental space.
The final scoring follows immediately after.

Final Scoring Categories

Victory points from cattle cards; if your herder is on Simmental space, add 2 points.
One victory point for every 5 Dollars you own.
Victory points on buildings you own.
Victory points for each disc on highlighted trading post spaces.
Victory points from worker cards.
Victory points from bonus tiles you own.
Points from completed objective tiles (each item counts only once per objective).

The player with the highest total wins.
In case of a tie, the player with more money wins.
If still tied, victory is shared.

Solo Variant Setup

Start by setting up a 2-player game with these modifications:

Opponent Color: Choose a player color for your opponent, Sue. She only uses the discs and herder of that color; return all other components of that color to the box.
Sue’s Cards: Sue does not use player cattle cards—return those to the box. Instead, take 3 cards of each of the 4 worker types, plus 3 yellow Black Angus and 3 blue Corriente cattle cards. Shuffle these 18 cards face down to form Sue’s supply deck.
Bot Deck: From the 11 solo cards, take all A-cards and add 0 to 3 B-cards to adjust difficulty (each B-card makes the game harder). Shuffle them together, then return any unused B-cards to the box.
Strategy Setup: Take 3 non-wild worker cards (one of each type), shuffle them, and place them face up in a row; the order determines Sue’s strategy.
Initial Positions: Place one of Sue’s discs on trading post space 5 and her herder at El Paso. Sue does not get a starting objective tile.
Starting Resources: You take the first turn, starting with 4 Dollars, 1 exchange token, and draw 4 cards from your personal draw stack. Sue does not receive any money or exchange tokens at any time.

Gameplay Differences

You and Sue take turns as usual, but with these special rules for Sue:

Sue as a Player: Sue counts as a player in all respects.
Bot Deck: On Sue’s turn, draw the top card from her bot deck (reshuffle discards if needed). The card instructs you how far to move Sue’s herder and which action to perform.
1. Movement: Move Sue’s herder according to the usual rules. If multiple paths are possible, Sue always takes the shortest route; if tied, she chooses the inner path. Note that El Paso stops her movement.
  - Example: If the card says “1,” move herder 1 step per worker of the indicated type.
2. Action: The action is performed based on the location where Sue’s herder stops, except El Paso (which has special rules). Place the used bot card face up in Sue’s discard pile. When the bot deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
No Money or Exchange Tokens: Sue never gains or uses money or exchange tokens.
Cattle Cards: When Sue gains cattle, place them face up in her cattle stack.
Cattle Market: When Sue visits the cattle market, she takes a cattle card based on her number of cowboys:
- 1 cowboy = Black Angus
- 2 cowboys = Corriente
- 3 cowboys = Shorthorn
- 4 or more cowboys = Hereford

Sue’s Supply Deck Draws

Sue draws 1 or 2 cards from her supply deck each turn.
If a cattle card: Add it to her cattle stack (used only for scoring).
If a wild worker card: Assign it to the worker type Sue has the most of, ignoring any type with 4 or more workers. In ties, assign to the leftmost type. Example: Sue has 2 Cowboys, 4 Engineers, and 2 Builders. She ignores Engineers (4+), and between Cowboys and Builders (tied at 2), she adds the wild worker to Cowboys.

Sue’s Actions on Train Cards

Sue chooses a train card based on her number of Engineers.
She performs only the following:
- Takes the objective/bonus tile with the highest Victory Points (tie goes to leftmost).
- Instead of hiring a worker, she draws from her supply deck.
- Performs the first possible action among:
  - Take a Corriente cattle card from the market and add it to her cattle stack.
  - If she has fewer than 2 buildings, build one using as many builders as possible, placing it on the most expensive empty spot nearest her herder (clockwise).
  - If she owns two buildings, upgrade one with as many builders as possible (same tiebreaker).
  - If all buildings are maxed out, add a Hereford cattle card to her cattle stack.
Sue chooses the action for which she has the most workers (ties go to the leftmost).

El Paso Rules for Sue

El Paso ends her herder’s movement.
After carrying out the bot card action, Sue performs the delivery action:
- Take a Simmental cattle card and add it to her cattle stack.
- Sue will deliver first to trading post space 7, then move to the next highest trading post on subsequent deliveries.
Place one of Sue’s discs on the corresponding trading post space.
If the delivery reward is an objective tile, Sue takes the one with the most Victory Points (tie goes to leftmost).
If the reward is a worker, she draws from her supply deck.

Scoring Sue’s Game

Sue’s score is calculated as usual.
She does not score points for Dollars.
All of Sue’s objective tiles count as completed regardless of actual progress.

Official El Paso Rules

How to Play El Paso

Game Summary