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Product Introduction

Brass: Birmingham is the sequel to Martin Wallace's 2007 masterpiece, the economic strategy game Brass. Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the Industrial Revolution, between 1770-1870.

As in the previous game, you must develop, build, and establish industries and networks to take advantage of low or high market demand.

In each round, players take turns following the turn order track and receive two actions to perform the following actions (as in the original game):

1) Build - Pay the necessary resources and place an industry tile.
2) Network - Add rail/canal links and expand your network.
3) Develop - Increase the VP value of an industry.
4) Sell - Sell cotton, manufactured goods, or pottery.
5) Loan - Take a loan of £30, reducing your income.

Brass: Birmingham also features a new sixth action:

6) Scout - Discard 3 cards and take 1 wild location and 1 wild industrial card. (This action replaces the Double Action Build from the original Brass.)

The game is played over two halves: The Canal Age (1770-1830) and the Rail Age (1830-1870). To win the game, score the most VPs. VPs are counted at the end of each half for canals, rails, and established (flipped) industry tiles.

Birmingham features dynamic scoring canals/rails. Instead of each flipped industry tile providing a static 1 VP to all connected canals and rails, many industries provide 0 or 2 VP. This provides players with the opportunity to score much higher value canals in the first era, and create interesting strategy with industry placement with created

Iron, coal, and cotton are three industries that appear in both the original Brass and Brass: Birmingham.

New "Sales" System

Brewing has become a fundamental part of Birmingham's culture. You must sell your goods through traders located at the edge of the board. Each of these traders seeks a specific type of good each game. To sell cotton, pottery, or manufactured goods to these traders, you must consume beer to "grease the wheels of industry." For example, a level 1 cotton mill requires you to flip one beer. As an incentive to sell early, the first player to sell to a trader receives a free beer.

Birmingham features three entirely new industry types:

Breweries - Produce the valuable barrels of beer needed to sell goods.

Mans - Function like cotton, but have 8 levels. Each level of manufactured goods offers its own reward, rather than simply escalating in VP. A more versatile (but potentially more difficult) path compared to cotton.

Potteries - These massive structures in Birmingham offer huge VPs, but must be planned for at a significant cost.

Increased Market Size for Coal and Iron - The price of coal and iron can rise to £8 per cube, which is not uncommon.

Brass: Birmingham is an elaborately brewed sequel leading to one of the most industrial economic games in history. It offers a completely different story arc and experience than its predecessor. Many of the tried and true strategies of the original are no longer as powerful as they once were, and other interesting new strategies are waiting for you to discover.

Safety Warning

Not suitable for children under 3 years of age.
Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the Industrial Revolution, between 1770-1870.
As in the previous model, you must develop, build, and establish industries and networks to take advantage of low or high market demand.
Provides a new high-quality component and consistent experience for 4 players with finely tuned rulesets and improved 2 & 3 player rules. Includes 4 player mats.
Martin Wallace's original masterpiece.