The first dates back to 2007 Brass, Lancashire, title of Martin Wallace that many board game enthusiasts surely know. It is a management game set at the time of the Industrial Revolution in England which, despite the simplicity of the mechanics, is undeniably deep and difficult to master. Given the success, in 2017 the Roxley games launched a fruitful kickstarter, which included a new edition of Brass, with an attractive graphics, as well as the new Brass Birmingham, a "sequel" to his older brother Lancashire. Over 13.000 backers decided to fund the campaign and helped bring the new to life Brass which, in 2019, was localized and distributed by Ghenos Games.
Brass Birmingham: welcome to the West Midlands
Also Brass Birmingham, like its predecessor, it is set in England between 1770 and 1870, but in the West Midlands. As good entrepreneurs of the time, we will have to expand our business by dedicating ourselves to the development of various industries: given the geographical position we will not be able to build shipyards and ports, but we will have the classic cotton mills, coal mines, ironworks as well as new manufacturing industries, the kilns and breweries. The game mechanics are almost identical to those of Brass Lancashire, as will be further developed later; however strategic options change a lot since we will be faced with many more building opportunities and, consequently, more ways to get victory points. The challenge will always feature two to four players.
Components, materials and graphics
The box, although relatively small in size, is very heavy given the amount of dies inside and their indisputable quality. The player boards are very large (larger than Lancashire, as they house more types of building industries and related cardboard tokens) and the game map has two faces with slightly different graphics, day and night: from the point of view of mechanics it doesn't matter which one to choose, it just depends on personal taste. The graphics are very clear and functional. For further details on the components, please refer to ours unboxing video which you find here, where you can see in detail the contents of the box.
The game mechanics
Without pretending to be complete, let's briefly see the mechanics of Brass Birmingham. The game is divided into two eras, the era of canals e the era of railways. At the end of the first period there is a first scoring, while at the end of the second we will have the final point count, which is added to the previous one. The duration of the epochs is marked by a deck of cards. Each player has eight cards which he will have to use to perform the actions he wishes. At each turn therefore (with the exception of the first), each will discard two cards from his hand to perform two actions; it is not compulsory to carry out the actions but in any case the two cards must be discarded. After doing this, he re-pushes his hand until he has eight cards again. The money spent on actions must always be placed above your turn indicator, since at each round (ie when everyone has performed two actions and discarded two cards) the turn order is restored and whoever has spent less becomes the first player; you receive (or pay) money based on your income.
When it is no longer possible to draw from the deck because it is exhausted, simply continue with the turns until everyone has discarded all their cards and then proceed with the point count of the age of the channels and then reassemble the deck to start the next age, which will always end when all cards are discarded. The cards are mainly of three types, which are relevant to the game only when performing a build action:
- place cards: correspond to the various cities on the map;
- industry cards: correspond to the various types of industries that can be built;
- wild cards (place and industry): they are not found in the deck but must be acquired with a specific action and used to build where you want.
The available actions are:
- Construction: build your own industry on the map, paying its cost and discarding a location card corresponding to the place you want to build, or an industry card of the correct type;
- Connection: a link is created between two cities, a canal or a railway depending on the era that is currently being played;
- Development: you discard industry tiles from your board, to gain access to the best ones, paying iron;
- Sale: you consume beer to turn your manufacturing industries, cotton mills, or kilns built on the map, earning income and victory points at the end of the era;
- Loan: he lowers his income by three to get £ 30;
- Espionage: 3 cards are discarded to obtain 2 wild cards.
Victory points will consist of industries built and turned during the game through the sales action (or whose resources have been used in the case of mines, ironworks and breweries); from the links built.
Brass Lancashire or Brass Birmingham?
Given that the game mechanics are almost identical, there are some fundamental differences between the two titles of Wallace. In particular:
- la presence of wild cards and related espionage action replaces the action that allows you to swap any 2 cards to build anywhere; this makes it a little less penalizing to make this choice if you do not have the right cards in your hand;
- we start with less money I respect Lancashire, but you can ask loans for the duration of the game;
- as already mentioned, shipyards and ports are gone: there are breweries instead, necessary to sell the goods; there are manufacturing industries and furnaces that offer different bonuses and scores than cotton mills;
- the cities to be reached to sell their goods also have merchant tiles randomly assigned at the start of the game indicating which goods can be sold on site; in these places beer is also placed that can be used by the first one who sells using that market, who also gets a pre-established bonus.
There are differences and they are reflected in the strategic choices to be adopted; Lancashire perhaps has fewer choices, it is more difficult to adapt and elaborate a plan B in case one's strategy is hampered by the adversaries; Birmingham offers a wider variety of moves and more ways to score. In my opinion there is no better or worse between the two, are both games with solid and deep mechanics.
Considerations
Brass Birmingham it is undoubtedly a nice game, which takes up the mechanics of its predecessor Lancashire albeit adding some more possibilities in terms of strategic choices. Those who have already tested Brass Lancashire may initially find themselves displaced by the new choices, even if one realizes that, ultimately, breweries replace ports, manufacturing industries and furnaces are particular alternatives to shipyards. The game materials do not disappoint and the graphics are clear and understandable (as well as aesthetically very pleasant). Not a game to be offered to newbies, since although the turns are simple in the mechanics, the underlying choices require some experience with board games of this type.
