✅ Verified (minor gaps) — fact-checked against the rulebook text; only small omissions were found, nothing that changes how the game is played or scored.

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Overview

Brass: Birmingham is an economic strategy game set during the Industrial Revolution in England’s West Midlands (1770-1870). Players build and develop industries (Cotton Mills, Coal Mines, Iron Works, Manufacturers, Potteries, Breweries), establish canal and rail networks, and sell goods to earn victory points. The game plays over two eras (Canal and Rail), with scoring at the end of each. The player with the most VPs after the Rail Era wins.

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 4 Player Mats
• 4 Character tiles
• 4 Income Markers, 4 VP Markers
• 64 Location and Industry cards
• 8 Wild cards (4 Wild Location, 4 Wild Industry)
• 4 Player Aids
• 180 Industry tiles (45 per color)
• 56 Link tiles (14 per color)
• 30 Coal cubes, 18 Iron cubes, 15 Beer barrels
• 9 Merchant tiles
• 67 Money tokens
• Turn Order Track

Setup

1. Place board, set up Merchant tiles, fill Coal Market and Iron Market.
2. Each player takes: Player Mat, 17 pounds, Character tile, Link tiles, Industry tiles (stacked on mat slots with black side down), VP marker on 0, Income marker on 10.
3. Deal 8 cards to each player.
4. Each player draws 1 additional card from the Draw Deck and places it face down in their player area (mandatory step for every player).
5. Shuffle Character tiles randomly on Turn Order Track.
6. Remove Location cards by player count: 2P remove blue + teal; 3P remove teal; 4P use all.

Turn Structure

Eras and Rounds

• Canal Era then Rail Era, each played in rounds.
• Rounds per era: 4P = 8 rounds, 3P = 9 rounds, 2P = 10 rounds.
• First round of Canal Era: each player performs only 1 action (exception to normal 2).

Player Turn

1. Perform 2 actions (discarding 1 card per action from hand).
2. Place all money spent on your Character tile (for turn order).
3. Refill hand to 8 cards from Draw Deck.

End of Round

• Rearrange turn order: least money spent goes first; ties keep relative order.
• Return spent money to Bank.
• Collect income (positive or negative based on Income Marker position).
• Exception: No income after final round of the game.

Actions

Build

Place an Industry tile from your Player Mat onto a location on the board.

• Requires discarding a Location card (build at named location, even outside network) or Industry card (build matching industry at a location in your network).
• Pay money cost shown on Player Mat.
• Consume required coal (must be connected to coal source) and/or iron (from any source).
• Coal Mines and Iron Works: place resource cubes on tile.
• Breweries: place 1 beer barrel (Canal Era) or 2 (Rail Era).
• Must build on matching industry space icons.

Network

Place a Link tile to expand your canal (Canal Era) or rail (Rail Era) network.

• Canal: costs 3 pounds. 1 Link per canal route.
• Rail: costs £5 + 1 coal per link. You may build 1 rail link for £5 + 1 coal; or 2 rail links for £15 + 1 beer (plus 1 coal per link). The beer for the double-link must come from a Brewery (not a Merchant beer); if consuming from an opponent’s brewery, it must be connected to the second link after it is placed.

Develop

Remove 1 or 2 Industry tiles from your Player Mat (consuming iron), advancing to higher-level industries.

Sell

Flip Cotton Mills, Manufacturers, and/or Potteries by selling to connected Merchants.

• Must consume beer for each sell action (amount shown on tile; from your own breweries — no connection needed — or connected opponents’ breweries).
• Some Merchant tiles require specific goods.
• If there is a beer barrel on the space beside the Merchant tile you are selling to, you may consume it as part of the Sell action. Doing so earns you the Merchant Beer Bonus for that location:
  • Gloucester: Remove 1 of the lowest level tiles of any industry from your Player Mat (cannot remove a Pottery tile showing a lightbulb icon).
  • Oxford: Advance your Income Marker 2 spaces along the Progress Track.
  • Nottingham / Shrewsbury: Advance your VP Marker by the number of spaces indicated.
  • Warrington: Receive £5 from the Bank.

Loan

Take 30 pounds from the Bank. Move Income Marker back 3 income levels.

Scout

Discard 3 cards from hand. Receive 1 Wild Industry + 1 Wild Location card.

• Cannot use if you already have a Wild card in hand.

Pass

Skip an action but must still discard a card.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Scoring occurs at the end of each era:

1. Score Links: Each Link tile scores 1 VP for each merchant/link icon displayed in adjacent locations on the board. Remove Link tiles from board after scoring.
2. Score Flipped Industry Tiles: Score VPs shown on bottom-left of flipped tiles. Unflipped tiles score nothing.

End of Canal Era additional steps:

• Remove all level 1 Industry tiles from the board (not from Player Mats).
• Reset Merchant beer. Shuffle discard piles into new Draw Deck.

End of Rail Era: Score as above, then declare winner.

Winner: Most VPs. Tiebreaker: highest income level, then most money remaining. Still tied = shared victory.

How Tiles Flip (Score)

| Industry | How it Flips | |———-|————-| | Cotton Mill | Sell action | | Manufacturer | Sell action | | Pottery | Sell action | | Coal Mine | Last coal cube removed | | Iron Works | Last iron cube removed | | Brewery | Last beer barrel consumed |

When flipped, advance Income Marker by the number of spaces shown on the tile.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

Connected Locations

Two locations are connected if a route of Link tiles (any player’s) connects them. Connections matter for building with Industry cards, consuming coal, and selling.

Coal Consumption

• Must consume from closest connected unflipped Coal Mine (free).
• If not connected to a Coal Mine, purchase from Coal Market (requires connection to a Merchant space).

Iron Consumption

• From any Iron Works on the board (no connection needed, free).
• If none available, purchase from Iron Market.

Beer Consumption

• Required for Sell actions and certain Merchant tiles.
• Consumed from your own breweries or connected breweries (any player’s).

Overbuilding

You may replace an already-placed Industry tile with a higher-level tile of the same industry type (still paying the normal build cost):

• Your own tile: You may Overbuild any Industry tile of yours. Any iron/coal cubes on the tile being replaced go back into the general supply.
• An opponent’s tile: You may Overbuild only a Coal Mine or an Iron Works of theirs, and only if there are zero resource cubes of that same type anywhere on the board, including in its Market. Overbuilding an opponent’s Cotton Mill, Manufacturer, Pottery, or Brewery is never allowed, regardless of level.

Overbuilt Industry tiles are removed from the game (returned to the box) and never score VPs; the owner does not lose income or VPs when their tile is overbuilt.

Negative Income

If your income is negative, you must pay that amount. If unable, sell Industry tiles from board at half cost. If still short, lose 1 VP per pound short.

Farm Breweries

Two special brewery locations that cannot be built with Wild Location cards.

Market Mechanics

• Coal Mine: Only if connected to any Merchant space (even one without a Merchant tile) does building it trigger moving cubes from the tile to the Coal Market.
• Iron Works: Always triggers the market move immediately upon being built, regardless of network connection.
• When triggered, move as many cubes as possible from the Industry tile to available Market spaces (filling the most expensive spaces first), collecting the money shown for each cube moved. If the last cube is moved from the tile, flip it and advance the Income Marker by the amount shown on the tile.

Player Reference

Turn Summary:

1. Perform 2 actions (1 card discarded per action)
2. Place spent money on Character tile
3. Refill hand to 8 cards

Starting Resources: 17 pounds, Income level 10, 0 VP

Action Quick Reference:

Action	Cost	Card Required
Build	Tile cost + resources	Location or Industry card
Network (Canal)	3 pounds	Any card
Network (Rail)	5 pounds + 1 coal	Any card
Develop	Iron (1-2)	Any card
Sell	Beer	Any card
Loan	-3 income levels	Any card
Scout	3 cards total discarded	Any card
Pass	Nothing	Any card (still discard)

Rounds per Era: 2P=10, 3P=9, 4P=8