Pioneers Review

America is starting to prosper and new towns are popping up all over, but there are not enough specialist workers to meet demand. To win Pioneers, you need to take your farmers, bankers, merchants, sergeants, barkeeps, gold diggers and hoteliers to the towns that need them whilst building a connected network of roads and digging for gold in this 45-60 minute, 2 to 4 player game from Queen Games.

Wild West?

Pioneers is not an aggressive game with shootouts, disease, famine, and drought (for that you need to look at the excellent and similarly named Pioneer Days from TMG), instead, this is a clever game of pick up and deliver combined with road building. The twist on these mechanisms is the fact that there is only one stagecoach being driven around the board and all players must start their turn where the last player finished. This leads to some very clever maneuvering and ‘on the fly’ adjustments to your tactics as the stagecoach could be in a completely different place on your turn to where you expected. Reacting to this and making the most out of all of your turns is the only way to secure victory.

Getting Ready For The Great Journey

The components in this game are fantastic from the big central board (which represents North America and is two sided for different player counts) to the coaches shaped like coaches and the cowboy meeples.

At the beginning of the game you randomly place pioneer tiles on all locations making sure there are not duplicate tiles next to the start space. Give all players a player board, all of the roads, cowboy meeples and a shop of one colour together with two dollars. Then each player will receive one of the four starting coaches which they place five meeples on the spaces below the pictures of the pioneer tiles (these meeples are now tied to those pioneer types).

The normal coaches are then shuffled and a certain amount removed (depending on player count) and then four are revealed and placed below the board under the 1,2,3 & 4 dollar locations. Finally all players place one of their meeples on the starting space and the great journey across America can commence.

Move ‘Em Out

The gameplay is very easy and it is split into three simple steps.

1. Every turn you collect 3 dollars. This can be increased as you progress to 4 or 5 dollars by collecting one or two banker tiles from the board
2. At the beginning of the game you can make one purchase but as the game progresses you can collect one or two merchant tiles from the board which would enable two or three purchases. Options during this phase are one road for 2 dollars, two roads for 5 dollars or a new coach which varies from 1 to 4 dollars according to where the coach is located under the board. You can place roads anywhere on the board as long as there is not another road already there
3. Movement and colonizing. This is where you will move the stagecoach to a new location stopping as soon as you reach an unclaimed pioneer tile. To move on an unclaimed road you must pay the bank 1 dollar, your own roads are free to use whereas your opponents roads will cost you 1 dollar per road which you pay the opponent who owns that road

When you reach an unclaimed pioneer tile you must stop the stagecoach. Now you look at the colour of the tile and see if any of the meeples on your coaches are of the same type. If so you remove the tile (placing the yellow banker or purple merchant tile on your board to provide more income and further purchase opportunities) then remove the corresponding meeple from your coach and place them on the now empty space. You then offer the other players (in turn order) the opportunity for one of them to join your meeple on that space for the price of 2 dollars. The meeple must be of the same type as placed by you.

The other pioneer tiles provide the following benefits;

Sergeant (Blue tile) – This allows you to place 1 additional road even on a road where an opponent has already placed a road

Barkeep (Red tile) – Placing a barkeep allows you to remove an additional meeple from one of your coaches and return them to your supply

Gold Digger (Gold tile)  - This allows you to take a gold nugget at random

Farmer (Green tile) -  This enables you to place up to 3 of your farmer meeples from your coaches onto this space

Hotel (Rainbow tile) – You can place any of your meeples on this space and earn 3 dollars.

As soon as one your coaches becomes empty you turn it over and receive 1 dollar from the bank. If ever you start a turn without any coaches face up you must purchase a coach on your turn before making any other purchases.

Once a player has completed all three steps the next player in clockwise order has their turn. This continues until one player has placed their last road or the last coach is flipped over and added to the display. When that happens the round is completed so all players have had the same number of turns and then final scoring is calculated.