Brass: Birmingham – an Economic Strategy Game for 2-4 Players | #1 Board Game on Board Game Geek | Ages 14+ | Plays in 60-120 Minutes

Price: $199.99 - $73.99
(as of May 05, 2025 23:35:15 UTC – Details)


Brass: Birmingham is an economic strategy game sequel to Martin Wallace’ 2007 masterpiece, Brass. Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the industrial revolution, between the years of 1770-1870.
As in its predecessor, you must develop, build, and establish your industries and network, in an effort to exploit low or high market demands.
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.)
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.
Birmingham features dynamic scoring canals/rails. Instead of each flipped industry tile giving a static 1 VP to all connected canals and rails, many industries give 0 or even 2 VPs. This provides players with the opportunity to score much higher value canals in the first era, and creates interesting strategy with industry placement.
Iron, coal, and cotton are three industries which appear in both the original Brass as well as in Brass: Birmingham.
New “Sell” system
Brewing has become a fundamental part of the culture in Birmingham. You must now sell your product through traders located around the edges of the board. Each of these traders is looking for a specific type of good 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 flip. As an incentive to sell early, the first player to sell to a trader receives free beer.
Birmingham features three all-new industry types:
Brewery – Produces precious beer barrels required to sell goods.
Manufactured goods – Function like cotton, but features eight levels. Each level of manufactured goods provides unique rewards, rather than just escalating in VPs, making it a more versatile (yet potentially more difficult) path vs cotton.
Pottery – These behemoths of Birmingham offer huge VPs, but at a huge cost and need to plan.
Increased Coal and Iron Market size – The price of coal and iron can now go up to £8 per cube, and it’s not uncommon.
Brass: Birmingham is a finely brewed sequel to one of history’s most industrial economic games. It offers a very different story arc and experience from its predecessor. Many of the tried and true strategies of the original are no longer as powerful as they once were, and other interesting new strategies are waiting for you to discover.
AWARD-WINNING DESIGN: Critically acclaimed and Winner of multiple Game of the Year Awards, including the #1 Board Game of All-Time on BoardGameGeek
FUN FOR ADULTS AND FAMILIES: An extremely fun, well-designed board game that is perfect for game nights with your family or friends
THEMATIC GAMEPLAY: Players take on the role of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham and its surrounding areas during England’s Industrial Revolution in 1770 – 1870.
HIGHLY STRATEGIC: Players must develop, build, and establish industries and networks to best exploit low or high market demands. Effective planning is integral to each player’s overall success, as decisions can have long-term effects, impacting the actions that are available to them on later turns.
BALANCED RULESET: The rules in Brass: Birmingham have been tweaked to improve the overall balance for all player counts, including the rules for two and three players.