Getting down to brass tacksĭespite the simple actions Brass: Birmingham is as rich and deep as a bathful of balti. There’s a bit more to it than that, but understanding those basic actions opens up this wonderful, Industrial Revolution-era playground, just waiting to be explored by you and your friends. At its heart, it’s just a case of play a card, then choose whether to build something (cards have either locations or building types), make a transport connection to extend your network, develop an industry, or take a loan from the bank. I’ve placed emphasis on these foibles because it’s important to understand that when you get past that initial learning hurdle, Brass: Birmingham reveals itself like a drunk Premier League footballer.

Don’t be surprised if, in your first couple of games, people try to build something using coal, only to find that they can’t trace a connection back to the coal market. For some reason it feels as if the concept is harder to teach than it ought to be, and I’m not sure why, I just know that in every teach I’ve done so far, that’s the part I’ve had to repeat or clarify the most. Your networks are linked tiles of your colour, while connections are any number of networks that intersect, regardless of whose they are. Note the lack of ‘stuff’ on the boardīrass: Birmingham places huge importance on connections and networks, which are related, but distinct. A game of Brass: Birmingham at my game club. Coal, however, needs a transport connection to a coal source, whether that’s coal on someone’s coal pit tile on the board, or the market. Iron can be taken from anywhere on the board, as long as it comes from an Ironworks, before turning to the communal market. Both are necessary to build the buildings you want on the board, but consuming them is tricky. Despite only having these two, explaining how they work can be heavy going. Brassed-offīrass: Birmingham only has two main resources to worry about: coal and iron. It’s this networking which leads to the trickier concepts to wrap your head around in Brass: Birmingham. There’s this wonderful feeling of simultaneous competition and co-dependence, as each player tries to carve out their own spot in the Black Country, while relying on the other players to extend the reach of their network for the all-important trading. The same interaction is woven into Brass’ tweed, but with a clever twist. Whether it’s direct mano-a-mano conflict like in A Few Acres of Snow, the hidden role area control of Discworld: Ankh-Morpork, or the auctions of Tinners’ Trail. The hallmark of Martin Wallace’s designs is the level of interaction between players. The biggest change came in the art and graphic design, which got a complete overhaul and produced one of the most gorgeous boards in all of boardgaming. Lancashire is the same game as the original, albeit with some rough edges smoothed off, while Birmingham took the original formula and tweaked it with some new mechanisms and a randomised board setup, which helped it stand on its own two feet. The original Brass was never particularly pretty The Kickstarter went bonkers, and the original £48,000 target was left in the dust as they raised a cool million quid. Brass became Brass: Lancashire, and Brass: Birmingham emerged at the same time. Around 2016 Roxley Games teamed up with Martin to refresh the game with a new lick of paint and a brand new version. Martin Wallace designed the original game – Brass – which was critically acclaimed, but if we’re being honest, not much of a looker. Bold as brassīrass: Birmingham isn’t the first game in the series, as the ‘Birmingham’ suffix implies. A resounding, soot-covered, sing-it-from-the-pits, yes. “Is Brass: Birmingham as good as people say it is?” The answer is yes.

There’s one question on your lips, and I’m here to answer it for you.

If you’ve found your way here in 2023, it’s likely it’s because you’ve heard the fuss and want to board the steam locomotive hype train. The buzz is because it recently knocked the incumbent canary – Gloomhaven – off its perch as the de-facto number-one ranked game on Board Game Geek. Brass: Birmingham was released five years ago, but over the last couple of months it’s been the game on everybody’s lips.

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