Designer: Rudiger Dorn (Arkadia, Genoa, Goa, Istanbul, Istanbul: The Dice Game, Jambo, Las Vegas, Louis XIV, Karuba)

Artists: Klemens Franz (Agricola, Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small, Agricola Revised Edition, Altiplano, At the Gates of Loyang, Automobile, Barenpark, Bohnanza, Caverna: The Cave Farmers, Caverna: Cave vs Cave, Clans of Caledonia, The Colonists, Endeavor, Glory to Rome, Grand Austria Hotel, Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King, Le Havre, Le Havre: The Inland Port, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Luna, Merkator, Mombasa, Murano, Newton, Oh My Goods! Ora et Labora, Orleans, Patchwork, Port Royal, Riverboat, Snowdonia, Suburbia), Andrew Raiford (Pirates of Praedonia)

Publisher: Big Kid Games (Gondola, Montana, Sweet Mess)

Genre/Mechanisms: auction/bidding, city building, set collection, worker placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Montana: Goldrush & Longhorns is at 84% funding. If you’re interested in supporting the game and helping make sure the new expansions are published, you have 2 days left to pledge before the campaign ends.

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About:  A resource management and worker placement game using a spinner to allocate workers, set in Montana during the 19th century. The new Goldrush expansion adds in gold claims and new settlements; and the new Longhorns expansion adds in cattle, caravans, and new supplies.

How It Works:  The regular base game of Montana is played over a series of turns; on their turn, each player chooses to perform either a Recruit, Work, or Build action. End game is triggered once a player places their last settlement on the landscape board. Play continues until the player to the right of the starting player has taken their turn, completing the current “round” (even though there are no actual rounds in Montana). At that point, the player with the most placed settlements wins the game, with ties broken by the player with the highest combined number of cows and canteens, followed by the player with the highest combined number of coins, workers, and goods on their player board.

When choosing a Recuit action, the active player spins the arrow on the recruitment wheel and collects the pictured workers. White workers are wild, and the active player can choose to take any workers of their choice when a white worker is pictured. The active player can also choose to pay 1 grain per spinner space to advance the spinner needle, collecting the 2 workers from the original space as well as the 2 workers on the final advanced space.

When choosing a Work action, the active player places workers on one of the 6 regions of the worker board, collecting goods or money in the process. The Bank requires 1-3 workers and pays out 6-12 coins, depending on the number of workers used and the space selected. The Mine, Quarry, Grain Field, and Farmland each require 2 or 4 workers, and pay out a number of resources depending on the space selected. The Mine pays out either 2 copper for 3 coins or 3 copper for 6 coins, with an additional copper if 4 workers are used in either spot. The same rules apply for the Quarry, which pays out stone instead of copper. The Grain Field and Farmland offer grain and pumpkins respectively, but each contains 3 different worker placement spaces instead of the Mine’s and Quarry’s 2. The Grain Field offers 2 wheat for 1 coin, 3 wheat for 3 coins, or 4 wheat for 6 coins; and each space offers an additional wheat if the active player uses 4 workers instead of 2. The same spaces and ratios are also in effect for the Farmland, which pays out pumpkins instead of wheat. For any of these spaces, a player only needs 1 worker instead of 2 (or 2 instead of 4), when using the matching-colored workers who specialize in each particular type of farming. Finally, the active player may pay 1 pumpkin to visit the City, placing their worker on a space for a reward that corresponds with a certain number of pumpkins; they must have at least that number of pumpkins in their inventory to place their worker in the associated column. Then, proceeding clockwise, other players have the option to pay a pumpkin and place a worker in a corresponding space, again making sure they have enough additional pumpkins in their inventory to occupy their chosen column. Whenever A player has been “outbid” by another player on a given row, that player has the option to immediately relocate their worker to the leftmost space in any row (making sure they’re to the right of any other player’s worker in that row, and that they also have enough pumpkins in their inventory to occupy that column space). If that player then blocks an additional player, that player has the option to immediately relocate as well. Once each player has decided whether or not to place a worker in the city, and any relevant workers have been relocated or the player has passed, the players on the right-most end of each row pays out the designated number of pumpkins to receive the associated rewards. Players who have been outbid on a given row retain their pumpkins but do not claim any rewards.

When choosing a Build action, the player can build 1-3 settlements by paying the depicted resources on the associated tile spaces. Players may also receive cows, canteens, or bonus settlements depending on how they place.

Players can also take a free Cattle Trade action on their turn, paying a cow for a good of their choice, a worker of their choice or 3 silver.

The Goldrush expansion adds in 4 modules: Special Settlements, Special Landscapes, Events, and Goldrush. The Longhorns expansion adds in 3 modules: Ranches, New Supplies, and Longhorns. All 7 modules can be added separately or in any combination; they all add in additional types resources and/or mechanics.

Comparisons:  Thematically you could compare Montana to Coloma, Dice Settlers, Pioneer Days, and Sierra West. Some of Rudiger Dorn’s other most popular games include Goa, Istanbul, Karuba, Las Vegas, Luxor, and Steam Time.

What Should I Pledge?:
$25 Montana: Goldrush or Montana: Longhorns: one of the two new expansions along with the Montana: Trade Posts Promo.
$46 Montana: Goldrush + Montana: Longhorns: both of the new expansions, along with the Montana: Trade Posts Promo.
$59 Montana Heritage Edition: the KS-Exclusive Heritage Edition of the base game, including the Deluxe Wooden Upgrade Pack, Bank Teller Coin Tray, Montana: Trade Posts Promo, Unique Landscape Promo Tile, and the Montana Box Sleeve.
$129 Big Sky Bundle: the Montana Heritage Edition pledge and everything included in it, plus both new expansions and custom metal coins.

Add-Ons:
$59 additional copies of Montana Heritage Edition with all of the above-listed extras
$25 Montana: Goldrush expansion
$25 Montana: Longhorns expansion
$12 Deluxe Upgrades: includes the 72 piece Deluxe Wooden Upgrade Pack, Bank Teller Coin Tray, the Unique Landscape Tile, the wooden Starting Player Token, and 3 wooden Canteens
$20 Custom Metal Coins: includes 10 large gold coins and 29 small silver coins
$15 Montana Bit Boxes: includes 5 storage boxes for the game’s resources

KS Exclusives:
The Montana Heritage Edition and all of the components associated with it (the Deluxe Wooden Upgrade Pack, Bank Teller Coin Tray, Montana: Trade Posts Promo, Unique Landscape Promo Tile, and Montana Box Sleeve) are all KS-exclusives. So are the Deluxe Upgrades Pack and the Montana Bit Boxes.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $129 for the Big Sky Bundle, $15 for the Montana Bit Boxes, and $21 in shipping for a total of $165. If you forego the Bit Boxes since Big Kid Games is planning for a 3rd expansion that will also include GameTrayz designed for Montana and all 3 of its eventual expansions, then you’re looking at $150.

Montana: Goldrush & Longhorns completes its Kickstarter on Friday, November 15th and tentatively ships in August 2020.