Pioneers

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In a game of Pioneers, the players attempt to populate the cities shown on the game board with their pioneers, using coaches to transport them around the map. Each pioneer has a specific profession, and can only be settled in a city where their work is needed. After all the pioneers riding in a coach have been deployed on the game board, the player controlling the coach earns money …
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Category Tags , SKU ZBG-QUE10272 Availability 1 in stock
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Awards

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You Might Like

  • Cowboy meeples
  • Quick turns
  • Very unique gameplay
  • Great artwork / components

Might Not Like

  • Having to pay to use other players roads
  • Getting the gold nugget worth 3 points rather than 5
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Description

In a game of Pioneers, the players attempt to populate the cities shown on the game board with their pioneers, using coaches to transport them around the map. Each pioneer has a specific profession, and can only be settled in a city where their work is needed. After all the pioneers riding in a coach have been deployed on the game board, the player controlling the coach earns money and victory points. In addition, the players construct roads between the cities, expanding their own network and earning money from other players who use the roads. At the end of the game, each player will be rewarded with additional victory points based on the number of their pioneers in their largest network of connected roads. The player with the most victory points wins!

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.

Pioneers Gameplay

Do You Feel Lucky? Well Do Ya?

Like the rest of this game final scoring is easy to grasp, you receive points for all of your coaches turned over (see score on the face-up side of the coaches), any coaches with meeples still on will be worth 1 point per empty meeples space, each gold nugget will provide between 3 and 5 points, then you work out which of your connected road networks  has the largest number of meeples on it and you score 2 points per meeple in the largest network. If there is a tie the player with the most dollars left is the winner.

Final Thoughts

Pioneers has a great theme, lovely artwork and components, quick turns, clever scoring and offers lots of decisions with just three available actions each round.

There are many different ways of winning the game such as building a large connected network of roads/meeples, by unloading your meeples as quickly as possible to earn the carriage points, by collecting lots of gold nuggets or by a combination of all three.

You can obtain upgrades to your actions as the game progresses but this is not necessary to win the game as you can play just as well with the basic actions. You can use roads to your advantage and ensure that other players have to use yours to get to the location they desire which will help with the income obtained. Money is tight but rather than being a problem it actually enhances the game as it makes you think carefully before spending.

I would recommend this game to anyone interested in the theme or for someone who would enjoy a really unique take on the pickup and delivery/road building mechanisms.

Zatu Score

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You might like

  • Cowboy meeples
  • Quick turns
  • Very unique gameplay
  • Great artwork / components

Might not like

  • Having to pay to use other players roads
  • Getting the gold nugget worth 3 points rather than 5