Game Objective

In Brass: Birmingham, players compete to build industries and networks during the Industrial Revolution. The goal is to accumulate the most Victory Points (VPs) by building and flipping industry tiles and establishing link tiles across the board. The player with the most VPs after the Rail Era is declared the winner.

Setup

1. Board: Place the board on either the day or night side.
2. Cards and Tiles:
   • If playing with fewer than 4 players, remove cards and merchant tiles showing a player count higher than the current number of players.
   • Place the wild location and wild industry decks faceup on two card draw areas. Shuffle the remaining cards into the draw deck and place them facedown on the third area.
   • Shuffle merchant tiles and place one faceup on each space marked for your player count. (In 2-player games, no tiles in Warrington and Nottingham; in 3-player games, none in Nottingham).
3. Resources:
   • Place 1 beer barrel on each space beside a non-blank merchant tile.
   • Place 1 black cube on each coal market space (leaving one £1 space free) and 1 orange cube on each iron market space (leaving both £1 spaces free).
   • Place remaining cubes, barrels, and money (the bank) beside the board as the general supply.
4. Player Setup: Each player receives:
   • A player mat (set to day or night side).
   • £17 from the bank.
   • A colored character tile and matching link tiles.
   • Industry tiles (cotton mills, coal mines, iron works, manufacturers, potteries, and breweries) stacked on the player mat with the black top half facedown.
   • A victory point (VP) marker on the 0 space of the progress track and a round income marker on the 10 space.
   • A hand of 8 cards from the draw deck, plus 1 additional card placed facedown as a discard pile.
5. Turn Order: Shuffle character tiles and place them randomly on the turn order track.

Game Flow

The game is played over two eras: the Canal Era (1770-1830) and the Rail Era (1830-1870). Each era consists of several rounds (exactly 8, 9, or 10 rounds for 4, 3, or 2 players respectively).

Player Turns: Players take turns in the order shown on the turn order track. On your turn, you perform 2 actions (except for the first round of the Canal Era, where each player performs only 1 action). For every action, you must discard a card to your discard pile (wild cards return to their draw areas). After your actions, refill your hand to 8 cards from the draw deck. Money spent during the turn is placed on your character tile.

End of Round:

1. Determine Turn Order: The player who spent the least money goes first next round. Money is then returned to the bank.
2. Take Income: Collect money from the bank equal to your income level. If income is negative, you must pay the bank. If you cannot pay, you must remove industry tiles (worth half their cost, rounded down) or lose 1 VP for each £1 short.

Actions and How to Play

On your turn, you may perform any of the following actions (including the same action twice):

1. Build

Discard an appropriate card to place the lowest level industry tile from your player mat on an undeveloped space.

• Location card: Build any industry at the named location, even if not in your network.
• Wild Location card: Acts as any location card (except farm breweries).
• Industry card: Build the matching industry in a location that is part of your network.
• Wild Industry card: Acts as any industry card.

Restrictions: In the Canal Era, max 1 tile per location. In the Rail Era, multiple tiles are allowed per location. Tiles with a specific icon (indicated in the manual) may not be built until Develop is used. Costs: Pay the tile's cost and consume required coal/iron. Coal mines and iron works produce resources immediately; if connected to a market, resources move to the market, and you collect money. If the tile is emptied, it flips and increases your income level.

2. Network

Discard any card to place a link tile on an undeveloped line adjacent to your network.

• Canal Era: Build 1 canal link for £3.
• Rail Era: Build 1 rail link for £5 and 1 coal. Alternatively, build 2 rail links for £15 and 1 beer (from a brewery, not a merchant). Each rail link must be connected to a source of coal.

3. Develop

Discard any card to remove 1 or 2 industry tiles from your player mat (lowest level first) to access higher-level tiles. Consume 1 iron for each tile removed. Pottery tiles with a lightbulb icon cannot be developed and must be built/removed via the build action.

4. Sell

Discard any card to flip an unflipped cotton mill, manufacturer, or pottery tile connected to a matching merchant tile. You must consume the required beer. If you use a merchant beer, you collect a merchant beer bonus (Develop, Income, VPs, or Money). Flipping the tile increases your income level.

5. Loan

Discard any card to take £30 from the bank. Move your income marker 3 income levels backwards. You cannot take a loan if it drops your income below -10.

6. Scout

Discard 3 cards (the action card plus 2 additional) to take 1 wild location and 1 wild industry card.

Resource Consumption

• Coal: Consumed from the closest connected unflipped coal mine (free) or purchased from the coal market (requires connection to a merchant icon).
• Iron: Consumed from any unflipped iron works (free) or purchased from the iron market. No connection is required.
• Beer: Consumed from your own unflipped breweries (no connection needed), an opponent's unflipped brewery (must be connected), or a merchant tile space.

End of Game and Scoring

An era ends when all players have exhausted the cards in their hands. At the end of each era:

1. Score Links: Score 1 VP for each adjacent location for every link tile. Then, remove the link tiles.
2. Score Flipped Industries: Score the VPs shown in the bottom left corner of flipped industry tiles. Unflipped tiles do not score.

End of Canal Era Extras: Remove all level 1 industry tiles from the board, reset merchant beer, shuffle the draw deck, and draw new hands.

Winning: After the Rail Era scoring, the player with the most VPs wins. Ties are broken by highest income, then by most money remaining.

Tips for Winning

• Market Timing: Build coal mines or iron works when the markets are empty to collect money and flip your tiles faster for income.
• Network Strategy: Use the Rail Era double-link action (2 links for £15) to expand your network quickly, provided you have access to beer.
• Income Management: Use the Loan action to get a quick cash injection, but be mindful that it lowers your income level significantly.