How to play Brass: Birmingham

How to play

Setup: With fewer than 4 players, return the cards and merchant tiles marked for more players. Put the wild cards face up, shuffle the rest into a deck, and deal merchants to the spaces for your player count, each goods merchant with a beer barrel. Fill the coal and iron markets, leaving one £1 coal space and both £1 iron spaces empty. Each player takes a mat stacked with industry tiles, their links and £17, sets their VP marker on 0 and income marker on 10 (£0 income), and draws 8 cards plus one face down as a discard pile. Shuffle the character tiles for turn order.

Rounds and turns: There is a Canal Era then a Rail Era, each lasting 8, 9 or 10 rounds with 4, 3 or 2 players. On your turn take two actions (only one each in the very first round), discarding one card per action, then refill to 8 cards while the deck lasts. You may take the same action twice. Money you spend goes on your character tile.

Building industries: Build is the only action that needs a matching card. A location card lets you build in that town even outside your network; an industry card lets you build that industry anywhere in your network. Take your lowest tile of that industry, pay its cost plus any coal and iron, and place it on a matching space. In the Canal Era you may have one tile per town. In the Rail Era level 1 tiles can't be built, except potteries.

Your network: Your network is every town with your tile in it or next to your link. The Network action adds a link touching it: in the Canal Era one canal for £3; in the Rail Era one rail for £5 and 1 coal, or two rails for £15, 2 coal and 1 beer from a brewery.

Coal, iron and beer: Coal comes free from the closest connected unflipped coal mine, whoever owns it; only if none is connected do you buy from the coal market, which needs a connection to a merchant. Iron comes free from any unflipped iron works, connected or not, then from the iron market. Beer comes from your own breweries anywhere, rivals' connected breweries, or the merchant you sell to. No permission is needed.

Selling: Discard any card, then flip any of your cotton mills, manufacturers and potteries connected to a merchant that buys those goods, using the beer each tile shows. Flipping raises your income. Mines, iron works and breweries flip when their last cube or barrel is used, even by a rival.

Other actions: Develop removes one or two of your lowest tiles from your mat for 1 iron each. Loan gives £30 and drops your income three levels. Scout discards two extra cards for one wild location and one wild industry card.

End of round: The lowest spender goes first next round, and so on; then everyone collects income, or pays it if negative.

Scoring: When all cards are played the era ends. Each link scores 1 point per link icon in the two places it joins, then each flipped industry scores its points. After the Canal Era, remove links and level 1 industries, refill merchant beer and deal new hands. Most points after the Rail Era wins.

Strategy

Brass: Birmingham rewards players who plan a turn or two ahead and read what the board is about to need. Income first, then points: Money is tight early, and every flip raises the income you collect in every round that follows. Loans are normal: £30 now for three income levels is often a good trade early, when you'll recover it, and a poor one late. Income left at the end scores nothing, though it breaks ties. Build what will flip: An industry scores only if it is flipped when the era ends. A cotton mill with no merchant or beer in reach is dead weight. A coal mine, iron works or brewery flips when its last cube or barrel is used, often by an opponent, so placing coal where rivals will need it is a way to get your tiles flipped for you. Level 2 and up scores twice: Level 1 tiles leave the board after the Canal Era, but level 2 and higher stay and score again after the Rail Era; the rulebook points out a level 3 cotton mill can be worth 18 points across the game. Developing costs an action and an iron per tile but gets you to those tiles sooner. Clear your level 1 coal mine and iron works off your mat during the Canal Era, since level 1 tiles can't be built in the Rail Era. Links follow busy towns: Each link scores the link icons in the two places it joins, and only flipped industries and merchant spaces show them. Everyone's flipped tiles count for your links, so a link between two thriving towns can outscore an industry. Aim links at places you expect to fill up before the era ends. Beer is the choke point: Most sales need beer, and so does laying two rails at once. Your own brewery's beer works anywhere, while a rival's must be connected, so a brewery of your own buys freedom. Merchant barrels are limited and come with a bonus, so selling early can grab them before anyone else. Turn order is a resource: Spending little this round moves you up next round, which matters when a key space or the last merchant barrel is contested. Scouting for wild cards is worth it when your hand can't reach the build you need.

Tips

- One card per action, two actions a turn; in the very first round everyone takes just one. - Only Build needs a matching card; any card fuels Network, Develop, Sell, Loan or Scout. - Coal must come from the closest connected mine and iron from any iron works before you may buy from a market, even if that flips a rival's tile. - A new iron works, or a coal mine connected to a merchant, sells cubes into its market straight away for quick cash. - Get your level 1 coal mine and iron works off your mat before the Rail Era, or you'll spend Rail Era actions developing past them. - You may overbuild your own tile with a higher level of the same industry; a rival's coal mine or iron works only when that resource has run out everywhere, market included. - No income is paid after the final round, so spend everything on your last turn. - With 2 or 3 players some towns have no location cards in the deck; reach them through your network or a wild location card.

Player count & time

2–4 players aged 14 and up, in 60–120 minutes (first games run longer). The game adjusts to the count: with fewer players some location cards and merchants are removed, and each era has more rounds (10 with two players, 9 with three, 8 with four). Two players is a tight duel; with four the board fills fast and coal and beer run short.

Learning curve

Brass has more interlocking rules than most games: a network, three resources that are reached in different ways, and two eras. The rulebook offers an introductory game that plays only the Canal Era, then adds points for money, income and level 2+ industries so the score reflects how you did. It makes a good first session, and Roxley has video tutorials at roxley.com/brass-tutorial.

Brass vs. Brass: Lancashire

Brass: Lancashire is Roxley's reworked version of Martin Wallace's original Brass: cotton, coal, iron, ports and shipyards, with cotton sold through ports or a distant market. Birmingham, its sequel, adds breweries and beer, manufacturers and potteries, and sells to merchants at the edge of the board. Both are current. A third game in the series, Brass: Pittsburgh by Gavan Brown and Martin Wallace, was crowdfunded on Gamefound in 2026.

Common beginner mistake

Building industries that never flip. A tile scores only if it is flipped by the end of the era, so before you build, check that cotton, manufactured goods or pottery have a connected merchant that buys them and beer in reach, or that someone will want your coal, iron or beer. The other classic slip is forgetting that coal has to travel along links, while iron does not.