I was at Wellycon on the weekend, and managed to get a play in of Great Western Trail: New Zealand. I had entered the tournament for it expecting it to be taught, but it turned out we were supposed to have had it demoed to us beforehand at the con (which would have been good to know!). Regardless, I managed to get a speed teach and, aside from the first 20% of my game being pretty inefficient because I was fumbling through the rules, I ended the game with a pretty good understanding of all of the systems.
So how does New Zealand (herein NZ) compare to Rails to the North (RTTN) and Argentina (ARG)?
For reference, I have played Base/RTTN around 40-50 times, and ARG twice. My memory on the specifics in ARG is a little hazier as a result.
Existing Systems
The Trail: This is mostly similar to the other two, though there are overall fewer hazards. Whereas the base game had both Bandits + Hazards, and Argentina had plenty of farmers to get in your way, New Zealand's trail is actually fairly treachery free. You also only refill two things at the end of each track, and it is quite likely that no new hazards will come out. Coupled with the fact that you are now more incentivised to remove the Hazards that are there (more on this in new stuff) AND it's cheaper than the base game, this results in a fairly cruisy path.
Workers (General): There are four different types of workers (Shepherds, Craftsmen, Captains, Shearers), like ARG, but only 5 worker slots in each row this time. What is quite different to RTTN and ARG, however, is how the worker market functions. Although it refills in a similar albeit slower manner than previously, there is a wider variety of workers available initially, and you are able to purchase any of them straight away. The more of the same worker there is, the cheaper there are. This means that going last doesn't necessarily completely lock you out of purchasing the worker you want, though you may have to pay more for it (compensating this is the fact that you start with more money, of course). Workers are also no longer the driving force of the end game (more on this in the new stuff).
Sheep (Cows): Sheep generally feel a little cheaper to purchase than cows did, and there are a couple of other ways to acquire new sheep now too (including some of the Shepherd bonuses on the worker slots). The highest value is a 6, but there are also other 2s that you can purchase. They also have a Shearing value (similar to the Work value of Cows in ARG), which I will touch on in the new stuff.
Buildings: I didn't see enough of them to comment, but there was a pretty standard mix of bonus moves, rewards for certain workers / objectives, etc. Nothing major to report; they function in pretty much the exact same way as both other games.
Sailors (Engineers): The Rail network is gone, and there are no toll-ways on your way to deliveries. In its place is a series of small islands and a sail boat, which you use to navigate around. The island mechanism is a hybrid of the old railway and the top half of the board in RTTN. Effectively, you move your Boat around and visit various islands, which act like stations and places for storehouses (settlements from RTTN). You upgrade the stations in the same way as always, but the storehouses are placed by visiting islands rather than via a separate action. When you remove storehouses from your player board, you unlock a few bonuses too (things like victory points, permanent ribbons, one off coin bonuses, etc).
Deliveries: Pretty much the same as they have always been, with a slight twist. Now, if you have duplicate Sheep in your hand when you get to Wellington (the trail end), you keep them in your hand instead of discarding them. This means that if you have dud deliveries, you cycle through your deck more slowly, which is a larger penalty in NZ than the others due to an increased emphasis on deckbuilding (more soon).
Auxiliary Actions The standard actions are still around; you have ways to get coins, filter cards from hand, and move your Ship. Gone is the ability to remove cards from your deck from Aux Actions, though there is now a new way to remove cards from your deck. By discarding two (2 Filter) tokens (like from RTTN and ARG), you can instead trash a 1 Grey Sheep from hand and gain a Gold (a new type of resource).
New Stuff:
Shearers: Shearers introduce an entirely new way to gain coins and make deliveries. A few spaces on the board have a "Shear" action, which allows you to discard sheep from your hand and gain coins equal to their "Shearing Bonus" (a number separate from their value, similar to Cows in ARG). One building space on the board has a completely separate "delivery" action, which lets you deliver with your hand using their sheering values instead, and then deliver this to some completely separate delivery locations that seek "wool". As such, like players utilising the Captain and stations, players engaging in Shearing will have alternative ways to rapidly upgrade their player board. Shearing is also an excellent way to gain lots of money (effectively letting you "double" deliver on any single run). Note that this delivery doesn't accelerate the game end as it doesn't place A + B tiles, meaning that you can both Shear + Deliver in a single trail run while only advancing the end game once! Compared to the Farmer in ARG, I felt as though the Shearer had a much more defined and separate role in the game, rather than acting as a "supplement" to other main strategies.
Bonus Cards: Various actions in the game will enable you to acquire bonus cards that you add to your deck. These cards give you minor bonuses, such as gaining a Ribbon or gaining 1 Coin when you play them, but the best part of them is that they let you replace them immediately! As such, filling your deck with tonnes of bonus cards means you constantly get lots of incidental value. In my game, I acquired something like 6 or 7 bonus cards throughout the game, and they felt awesome every time I drew them. Removing Hazards is one way to gain bonus cards, but they can also be purchased with Gold. Speaking of...
Gold: Gold is a resource that is tracked on your player board, like Ribbons. Gold is used to pay for some actions throughout the game, but it can also be used to purchase cards from an entirely separate card market. Four different cards are included in each game (from a set of 10), allowing for different strategies to emerge between games. For example, in my game, there was a bonus card in the market that provided you with additional flexibility with your ships, and another allowed you to upgrade your buildings by 1 level for free! Though I didn't plan well around them in my game (as I was still grasping the rules at the beginning), the composition of this market is a critical factor in determining your strategy for the game.
B Market: The game end is now driven by an entirely separate "B Market", comprised of a wide range of different bonus tiles (the end game, however, triggers in mostly the same way as RTTN and ARG, just using this B Market instead). Some of these bonus tiles include "Wild Workers", which can be slotted into any worker slot, but cost a gold in addition to their usual cost. Other tiles let you trade a bunch of gold in for a large number of VP, or gave you access to particular bonus cards (such as ones that enhance your Pathfinding ability).
Pathfinding: There is an additional track in the game known as the "Pathfinding" track; it's not directly tied to any worker, and progressing on it can be tough. On a basic level, it serves as a way to gain some VP and some bonus gold along the way. There are also some spaces on the board that you cannot build on unless your Pathfinding is at a certain level; when you do build there, you also gain bonus gold. However, one of the key critical bonuses of the Pathfinding track is that, at certain points, you unlock bonus move speed and, later, the option to gain EVEN MORE move speed OR the ability to ignore black/green hands.
Impressions
NZ is easily the most complex of GWT so far, though players who are familiar with RTTN in particular won't struggle too much. With four workers that all lean into different strategies, TONNES of options in regards to the islands up the top, multiple markets (workers, B tiles, bonus cards), and an increased emphasis on deckbuilding, there is much more to consider as you make your way towards Wellington. Compared with ARG, which felt like a variant of the base game, with a slight increase in complexity over that, NZ feels like a variant on Base + RTTN, one that is more complex yet.
It's also the GWT game that I am most likely to keep on my shelf for the future, and it makes me glad I haven't bought into 2E yet. With ARG, I felt I would have happily alternated between it and RTTN, though my suspicion was that ARG would feel more "samey' over time. NZ is an easy straight replacement of RTTN for me; it feels as though Alexander has really refined the original systems that were introduced in RTTN, and enhanced an element that was arguably somewhat underutilised (deckbuilding). I'll certainly be looking to pick up a copy once it's released.