Brass: Lancashire
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Brass: Lancashire — first published as Brass — is an economic strategy game that tells the story of competing cotton entrepreneurs in Lancashire during the industrial revolution. You must develop, build, and establish your industries and network so that you can capitalize demand for iron, coal and cotton. The game is played over two halves: the canal phase and the rail phase. To win the game, score the most victory points (VPs), which are counted at the end of each half. VPs are gained from your canals, rails, and established (flipped) industry tiles. Each round, players take turns according to the turn order track, receiving two actions to perform any of the following:
Build an industry tile
Build a rail or canal
Develop an industry
Sell cotton
Take a loan
At the end of a player’s turn, they replace the two cards they played with two more from the deck. Turn order is determined by how much money a player spent on the previous turn, from lowest spent first to highest spent. This turn order mechanism opens some strategic options for players going later in the turn order, allowing for the possibility of back-to-back turns.
After all the cards have been played the first time (with the deck size being adjusted for the number of players), the canal phase ends and a scoring round commences. After scoring, all canals and all of the lowest level industries are removed for the game, after which new cards are dealt and the rail phase begins. During this phase, players may now occupy more than one location in a city and a double-connection build (though expensive) is possible. At the end of the rail phase, another scoring round takes place, then a winner is crowned.
The cards limit where you can build your industries, but any card can be used for the develop, sell cotton or build connections actions. This leads to a strategic timing/storing of cards. Resources are common so that if one player builds a rail line (which requires coal) they have to use the coal from the nearest source, which may be an opponent’s coal mine, which in turn gets that coal mine closer to scoring (i.e., being utilized).
Brass: Lancashire, the 2018 edition from Roxley Games, reboots the original Warfrog Games edition of Brass with new artwork and components, as well as a few rules changes:
The virtual link rules between Birkenhead have been made optional.
The three-player experience has been brought closer to the ideal experience of four players by shortening each half of the game by one round and tuning the deck and distant market tiles slightly to ensure a consistent experience.
Two-player rules have been created and are playable without the need for an alternate board.
The level 1 cotton mill is now worth 5 VP to make it slightly less terrible.
Ages | 14+ |
---|---|
Players | 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
Play Time | 60m – 120m |
Designer | Martin Wallace |
Mechanics | Income, Loans, Network and Route Building, Hand Management |
Theme | Economic, Industry / Manufacturing, Transportation |
Publisher | BoardM Factory, Conclave Editora, Crowd Games, Eagle-Gryphon Games, FRED Distribution, Inc., Funforge, Giant Roc, Roxley, Warfrog Games, White Goblin Games, Ghenos Games, Maldito Games, Pegasus Spiele, PHALANX, Wargames Club Publishing |
adamredwoods
3 plays / 3,4 players (4h playtime approx) LIKE: I like the blend of game elements: positioning with turn order, race for map positioning, and race to build specific types of industries. Unique intertwining of mechanisms and interaction that is not seen in many other games. I really enjoy the subtleties of the foreign and demand markets. I enjoy how there are interesting combos when building and flipping. I like the two eras, it really makes the game unique, the connection reset opens things up. DISLIKE: Incredibly fiddly rules which seem obtuse and not intuitive. The rules between coal and iron are very different and causes a lot of confusion. It may take a couple plays before it smooths out. Sometimes the cards feel random and force a player's strategy, mostly felt at the end, which could on rare times feel anti-climactic. OVERALL: Great game, very tense. I enjoy the app version as well. The base play is simple, but all the edge-case rules overhead makes the game complex and confusing. The Roxley map is a bit dull and dark, but it doesn't take long to get used to it. I like this version better than Birmingham, but only due to play time length. Birmingham feels slower. Age of Industry is faster yet, and still very good.
AdelinDumitru
Really good game, with an impressive production. However, I am not that enamored with it. It will stay in the collection, but i cannot say that i cannot wait to play it again.
AgentDib
Base game 2-4 players 3.9 weight 180 min New Roxley version preordered from Kickstarter Jan 2018 Brass full bundle pledge - Brass Lancashire deluxe - Brass Birmingham deluxe