Great Western Trail is the game I recommend when someone has played Ticket to Ride extensively and wants the next step. The cattle herding theme is immediately comprehensible, the train journey from Texas to Kansas City creates a clear geographic narrative, and the building mechanic — adding structures to cities along your route — is satisfying to execute and strategically deep to optimize.

The second edition cleaned up some awkward first edition rules and is the version to own. The Argentina standalone spinoff is excellent and somewhat more forgiving as a learning game, but the original is the definitive experience.

For players who love network building games, Great Western Trail is better than Ticket to Ride within about five plays. It takes longer to learn, but the depth it reveals across twenty plays surpasses anything TTR offers.