Brass: Birmingham is an economic strategy game and a sequel to Martin Wallace's 2007 masterpiece, Brass. Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the Industrial Revolution, between the 1770s and 1870s.
As in its predecessor, you must develop, build, and establish your industries and network, aiming to capitalize on both weak and strong market demands.
The game is played in two parts: the Canal Age (1770s-1830s) and the Railway Age (1830s-1870s). To win, you must score the most victory points (VPs). VPs are tallied at the end of each half for established (flipped) canals, railways, and industry tiles.
Birmingham features a dynamic scoring system for canals and railways. Instead of each flipped industry tile granting a static VP to all connected canals and railways, many industries award 0 or even 2 VPs. This allows players to score much higher-value canals during the first era and creates an interesting strategy with industry placement.
A new "selling" system is introduced.
Brewing has become a fundamental part of Birmingham's culture. You must now sell your product through traders located on the edges of the board. Each of these merchants is looking for a specific type of commodity each game. To sell cotton, pottery, or manufactured goods to these traders, you must also "grease the wheels of industry" by consuming beer. For example, a level 1 cotton mill requires one beer to turn over. To incentivize you to sell quickly, the first player to sell to a merchant receives free beer.
Birmingham introduces three new industry types:
Brewery – produces the valuable barrels of beer needed to sell goods.
Manufactured Goods – functions like cotton but has eight levels. Each tier of manufactured goods offers unique rewards, instead of simply increasing VP, making it a more versatile (but potentially more difficult) path than cotton.
Pottery – These Birmingham behemoths offer huge VP, but at a huge cost and require careful planning.
Increased size of the coal and iron market – The price of coal and iron can now reach $8 per cube, and this is not uncommon.
Brass: Birmingham is a well-crafted sequel to one of the most industrial economic games in history. It offers a very different storyline and experience from its predecessor. Many tried-and-tested strategies from the original game are no longer as powerful as they once were, and exciting new strategies await your discovery.
