It took me a long time to pluck up the courage and suggest to my weekly games group that we should try Brass: Birmingham. When a game is celebrated as being complex, your first instinct is to be intimidated. Yet, overall you had done well and were certainly top Brass: Birmingham by Roxley Games. But then, nobody could have predicted the Industrial Revolution to be so transformative as it had been. Maybe if you had been more careful and had planned further ahead when you first started out as an entrepreneur, things would have worked out differently. Investing in the rail network would have been much more lucrative and sensible, but you had wanted to compete with your contemporaries. Looking back, building that last pottery had been foolhardy. It offers a very different story arc and experience from its predecessor.Posted On 3 October 2020 Release Date: 2018ĭesigner: Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman, Martin WallaceĪrtist: Lina Cossette, David Forest, Damien Mammoliti Increased Coal and Iron Market size - The price of coal and iron can now go up to £8 per cube, and it's not uncommon.īrass: Birmingham is a sequel to Brass. Pottery - These behemoths of Birmingham offer huge VPs, but at a huge cost and need to plan. Each level of manufactured goods provides unique rewards, rather than just escalating in VPs, making it a more versatile (yet potentially more difficult) path vs cotton. Manufactured goods - Function like cotton, but features eight levels. As an incentive to sell early, the first player to sell to a trader receives free beer.īirmingham features three all-new industry types:īrewery - Produces precious beer barrels required to sell goods. For example, a level 1 cotton mill requires one beer to flip. To sell cotton, pottery, or manufactured goods to these traders, you must also "grease the wheels of industry" by consuming beer. Each of these traders is looking for a specific type of good each game. You must now sell your product through traders located around the edges of the board. Iron, coal, and cotton are three industries which appear in both the original Brass as well as in Brass: Birmingham.īrewing has become a fundamental part of the culture in Birmingham. This provides players with the opportunity to score much higher value canals in the first era, and creates interesting strategy with industry placement.
Instead of each flipped industry tile giving a static 1 VP to all connected canals and rails, many industries give 0 or even 2 VPs. VPs are counted at the end of each half for the canals, rails and established (flipped) industry tiles.īirmingham features dynamic scoring canals/rails. The game is played over two halves: the canal era (years 1770-1830) and the rail era (years 1830-1870). (This action replaces Double Action Build in original Brass.) Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the industrial revolution, between the years of 1770-1870.Īs in its predecessor, you must develop, build, and establish your industries and network, in an effort to exploit low or high market demands.Įach round, players take turns according to the turn order track, receiving two actions to perform any of the following actions (found in the original game):ġ) Build - Pay required resources and place an industry tile.Ģ) Network - Add a rail / canal link, expanding your network.ģ) Develop - Increase the VP value of an industry.Ĥ) Sell - Sell your cotton, manufactured goods and pottery.ĥ) Loan - Take a £30 loan and reduce your income.īrass: Birmingham also features a new sixth action:Ħ) Scout - Discard three cards and take a wild location and wild industry card. Build your industries and sell to markets during the English Industrial Revolutionīrass: Birmingham is an economic strategy game sequel to Martin Wallace' 2007 masterpiece, Brass.