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Brass: Birmingham
Year
2018
Players
24
Play time
120min
Min age
14+
Weight
3.86
BGG rating
8.56
BGG rank
#1
Best with
3, 4

Local copies

Rating: 9.0

Brass: Birmingham is an economic strategy game sequel to Martin Wallace's 2007 masterpiece, Brass. Brass: Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the industrial revolution between the years of 1770 and 1870. It offers a very different story arc and experience from its predecessor. As in its predecessor, you must develop, build and establish your industries and network in an effort to exploit low or high market demands. The game is played over two halves: the canal era (years 1770-1830) and the rail era (years 1830-1870). To win the game, score the most VPs. VPs are counted at the end of each half for the canals, rails and established (flipped) industry tiles. Each round, players take turns according to the turn order track, receiving two actions to perform any of the following actions (found in the original game): 1) Build - Pay required resources and place an industry tile. 2) Network - Add a rail / canal link, expanding your network. 3) Develop - Increase the VP value of an industry. 4) Sell - Sell your cotton, manufactured goods and pottery. 5) Loan - Take a £30 loan and reduce your income. Brass: Birmingham also features a new sixth action: 6) Scout - Discard three cards and take a wild location and wild industry card. (This action replaces Double Action Build in original Brass.)

Categories

EconomicAge of ReasonIndustry / ManufacturingPost-NapoleonicTrainsTransportation

Mechanics

ChainingEnd Game BonusesHand ManagementIncomeLoansMarketMulti-Use CardsNetwork and Route BuildingOwnershipTagsTech Trees / Tech TracksTile PlacementTurn Order: Stat-BasedVariable Set-up

Best with how many players

1
Not rec.
2
Recommended
3
Best
4
Best
4+
Not rec.

Community votes from BoardGameGeek

Language dependence

No necessary in-game text(58 of 61 votes)

Sub-rankings

  • Strategy Game Rank#1

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External data

Wikidata enrichment: 3 links · 8 facts · latest game data 06/20/2026.

Latest Wikidata run: ok · 06/20/2026.

Links

Facts

Publication date
2018
Publisher
Arclight
Publisher
CrowD Games
Publisher
Funforge
Publisher
Ghenos Games
Publisher
Roxley