Brass Birmingham – A Couple’s Review

Brass Birmingham a strategy game with canals, rail tracks, resources and competition, that tells the story of entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the industrial revolution. We hope you’re ready to cut the competition or join the race to gain resources faster than your fellow entrepreneurs in this game!

Now, let me start by saying I really enjoyed Brass Birmingham, but PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF INSERTS, I like to be able to put my games away neatly.
Secondly, it’s a really REALLY good game, but takes time to explain the rules and systems to get people playing quickly, and first-time games often run up to 6 hours. Subsequent games go much faster, but Brass Birmingham is one of those games that gets better when replayed.

The game itself? Fantastic! The strategy elements are really satisfying, and I’d go so far as to say its one of the most enjoyable strategy board games I’ve played so far. Also, you have loads of little elements you get to place on the board like coal, beer barrels, rail tracks and canals. It is VERY satisfying to watch the board get built up over a game. I’d highly recommend the premium edition if you love strategy games like Brass Birmingham, because the pieces have weight to them!

There’s a very strong tactical element to Brass Birmingham, where you need to watch the board and your opponent as you make your move, not to mention your hand. My personal opinion is making the best of what you have in Brass Birmingham, but you could change it all by taking a loan if you don’t mind a bit of risk when it comes to your strategies. I’d highly recommend Brass Birmingham for a weekend of board games.

One of Joshua’s favourite in our shelves, we played Brass Birmingham quite a few times when we first got it before moving to some of our other games. He LOVES it.
Brass Birmingham is played in two parts, the canal era followed by the rail era. The strategies evolve as you move from one era to the other, and this is one of the parts of Brass Birmingham that Joshua really enjoys, as everything can change!
Falling a bit behind? Well, you likely have a chance to catch up now!

Joshua’s favourite bit is actively stopping others from getting where they want to be if he can, or using their resources as a tactical decision to prevent them from getting more points in the round by building faster.
He’s also played around a lot more with the strategies for the end game and experimented with the actions you can take. When things seemed rather bleak during one game, he took a loan and used the money to catch up. It proved a far more effective strategy than either of us realized at the time.

The only reason he doesn't play it more often, is the time investment often required, and people up for something a bit more intense than most board-games we own.

The main playing board and player boards are relatively large. We’d highly recommend playing on a rectangular table where everyone has clear view of the board and can easily put down pieces as well.

We were able to comfortably play on a 90 x 150 cm table without needing to shuffle things around too much, and managed to fit snacks on the table as well. As always, box on the chair for extra pieces.

If you’re not comfortable grasping concepts without an explanation, it would be wise to watch a video tutorial as the enjoyment with Brass Birmingham is in its systems at play!

Honestly, once you're set up and you've grasped the rulebooks explanations, which while lengthy are really clear, it was really satisfying to pick up the mechanics, play with the systems and race to build everything we could!

The first time we set-up, it took us over half an hour to get the board ready. The player boards are relatively straightforward in how they're setup, with markings for each of the pieces for where they're meant to sit on the board. It does take time to find and place each piece though. Our next struggle was then referring to the rulebook to figure out the merchant beer bonuses and setting that up, as well as shuffling the cards and distributing them.

Once we were done, starting the game was far easier than we expected, with the rulebook explaining the exact moves that we could go through to then place links. Our first time playing was a mess all things considered. Between forgetting to play through the canal era and wondering why we didn't have enough money from the get go, we played the game in the wrong order and that took us a good two hours.

We then re-read the rules and realised that there's two parts to the game, so we started another game the next evening which took us a good six hours, and played it right this time.

Some fun stories from the last time we played

Joshua: Are coins scored?
Anjali: Mmm, no, it doesn't say that in the rulebook, so we do want to focus on using all the money. I wonder if that's why they said not to worry about the income track.
*Us looking at how far we are on the income track, then looking at each other.*
Anjali: Right, but like, money would make things easier, right?
Joshua: Yeah, I think that makes sense...

Anjali: Okay, I'm going to connect this and then build a brewery and buy a coal from the market because I'm connected - wait, does it work like that?
Joshua: You can't do that
Anjali: What do you mean? Of course I can, I'm connected to the market, aren't I?
Joshua: Yes, but the market link isn't connected to the brewery
Anjali: No, that shouldn't matter cause I'm buying from the market, right?
Joshua: No, no, it should be connected
Anjali *looking at the rules*: Oooooo - oh. oh no. I shouldn't have done that my first round either then. That was wrong... Oops?
Joshua: Well, if you win, we'll admit it cause you cheated!!
Anjali: I didn't mean toooooo!!!! And you didn't stop me then!!!
Joshua: Its fine, you can give me 15 gold and we'll count it even
Anjali: Who's cheating now!?!

Brass Birmingham is Anjali's game as she enjoys min-maxing, and each round, you can see the gears in her head turn as she attempts to find the optimal solution. Anjali tends to play it safe, making sure that she takes loans only once she sets up enough to pull herself out of the red, often playing tactically, focusing on other players moves to make the most of a situation, as well as scoring through links, both in the canal and rail eras. 

Joshua on the other hand, quite enjoys the risk reward strategy, taking loans sooner rather than later to build the more expensive industries, and hoping to rack in the points by overbuilding. Timing is key in Brass Birmingham and it can be very easy to miss the boat, which can Snowball pretty quickly if your hand isn't helping either.

Having watched out friends play however, both Joshua and I realized that we don't use the develop action enough to gain an advantage when looking to score. Developing your industries by moving them off the player board may seem a waste of a turn, but in return, you're likely to earn higher scores moving forward, without finding yourself in tight spots!

If you’re a big fan of strategy games and have played relatively complex board-games before, Brass Birmingham should feel pretty good after about 2-3 games.

If you’re someone who’s played board games before, but not heavy strategy board games, it might take 4-5 playthroughs before it starts to feel good. Primarily because there's a lot of systems you're learning about and picking up with time.

We’d highly recommend Brass Birmingham for a nice long weekend of board games, and one you definitely need headspace for...
So make sure you've got snacks on the table and are ready to tune your brains to make the most of each turn with your hand. May the best entrepreneur forge the richest path to victory!

If you enjoyed our review on Brass Birmingham and want to know more about the resource management mechanic in board games, we've written an article you can read right here, with other examples of board games that use the same mechanic.