Age of Industry

Overview

Age of Industry is a strategic economic board game designed by Martin Wallace and published by Treefrog Games in 2010. It is a streamlined redesign of Brass, focusing on the railway era of industrialization. Players compete to build the most profitable network of industries, factories, and transportation routes. The game features a double-sided board (Germany and New England), hand management with flexible location cards, and a core loop of building industries, shipping goods, and flipping tiles for profit.

Components

• Double-sided game board (Germany on one side, New England on the other), six-panel linen-textured
• 60-card deck (industry and location cards, color-coded to regions)
• Cardboard counters for industries, railroads, and loans
• Plastic currency (silver and gold denominations)
• Resource cubes (coal, iron)
• Market demand track
• Full-color rulebook with examples and quick reference

Setup

Choose a board side (Germany or New England). Shuffle the card deck and deal each player a starting hand. Players begin with no cash but may take loans freely. Place resource cubes on the board according to setup rules. Set the market demand track to its starting position.

Turn Structure

Players take turns in sequence. On each turn, a player plays cards from their hand to take actions. The game plays through a single era (the railway era — unlike Brass, there is no canal period).

Each turn:

1. Play a card to take an action
2. Resolve the action
3. Draw a replacement card (or draft from available cards via open drafting)

Actions

Build Industry

• Play a location card matching the region where you want to build
• Pay the cost in money plus any required resources (coal, iron)
• Place an industry tile (factory, cotton mill, port, coal mine, or iron works) on an available space in the matching city
• Industries must be built within your existing network (connected by your railroads) or in a new area via card play

Build Railroad

• Connect two adjacent cities with a railroad link
• Pay the cost in money and coal
• Railroads extend your network, enabling industry placement in new locations

Sell/Ship Goods

• Ship goods from your factories or cotton mills to a port or market
• When goods reach their destination, the industry tile is flipped (indicating it has produced), earning income
• Ports flip when goods are shipped to them
• Coal mines and iron works flip when all their resource cubes have been consumed

Take a Loan

• Loans are a free action and can be taken at any time
• Each loan provides immediate cash but reduces end-game scoring
• There is no limit on the number of loans, but each reduces final score

Develop

• Remove lower-level industry tiles from your supply to access higher-level (more profitable) ones

Scoring / Victory Conditions

At the end of the game, players score:

• Flipped industry tiles: Each flipped tile has a point value; higher-level tiles score more
• Railroad links: Points for each railroad segment built
• Loan penalties: Subtract points for each outstanding loan

The player with the highest total score wins.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Cards are color-coded to regions rather than specific cities, giving players more flexibility than in Brass
• The single-era structure (no canal period) simplifies the game flow
• Market demand fluctuates as goods are sold, affecting the viability of selling certain products
• Coal and iron are shared resources on the board; any player’s coal or iron can be used by any player (though using another player’s resources may flip their tile)
• Overbuilding (placing a higher-level tile on top of a lower-level one) is allowed under certain conditions
• The two map sides (Germany and New England) play differently due to geography and available industries
• Unlike Brass, there is no distinction between player order in canal and rail eras

Player Reference

Industry Types

| Industry | Flips When | Notes | |———-|———–|——-| | Factory | Goods shipped to port/market | Core income generator | | Cotton Mill | Goods shipped to port/market | Similar to factory | | Port | Goods shipped to it | Enables shipping | | Coal Mine | All coal cubes used | Shared resource | | Iron Works | All iron cubes used | Shared resource |

Key Differences from Brass

| Feature | Brass | Age of Industry | |———|——-|—————-| | Eras | Canal + Rail | Rail only | | Cards | City-specific | Region-coded (more flexible) | | Maps | Lancashire | Germany / New England (double-sided) | | Complexity | Higher | Streamlined |

Turn Summary

1. Play a card
2. Take an action (Build, Ship, Develop, or Sell)
3. Draw a new card
4. (Free action: Take loans as needed)