Brass: Birmingham rules refresher

Read the refresher

You are trying to finish the Rail Era with the most victory points. You earn them by building industries and flipping them through selling or having their resources consumed, and by building canal and rail links into valuable parts of the board.

For setup, remember to remove all cards and Merchant tiles showing a player count higher than yours. The two Wild card piles sit face up beside the draw deck. Shuffle the remaining Merchant tiles onto the Merchant spaces that match your player count, and put one beer barrel on the space beside each Merchant tile that is not blank. Fill the Coal Market but leave one of the one pound spaces empty, and fill the Iron Market but leave both one pound spaces empty. Each player takes seventeen pounds, stacks their industry tiles on their mat with the black half face down, puts their victory point marker on zero and their income marker on ten, draws a hand of eight cards, and draws one more card face down as the start of their discard pile. Turn order is random to begin.

The game is two eras, Canal then Rail, each played in rounds until both the draw deck and everyone's hands are empty. On your turn you take two actions, except in the very first round of the Canal Era, where you take only one. Every action costs you a card discarded face up onto your discard pile, and only the Build action cares which card it is. Wild cards go back onto their draw area instead of your discard pile. You may pass instead of acting, but you still discard a card. Any money you spend goes onto your Character tile on the turn order track, not into the bank. At the end of your turn refill to eight cards while the deck lasts. When everyone has played, reorder the turn track so whoever spent the least this round goes first, tied players keeping their relative order, then sweep that money into the bank. Then everyone takes income equal to their income level, or pays it if it is negative. Income is not collected at the end of the final round of the game.

Your six actions are Build, Network, Develop, Sell, Loan and Scout, and you may repeat the same one twice.

To Build, discard a Location card to build any industry in that named location even if it is outside your network, or an Industry card to build that industry in a location that is part of your network. A location is part of your network if it holds one of your industry tiles or is adjacent to one of your links. Take the lowest level tile of that industry from your mat and place it on an undeveloped space showing that industry's icon, preferring a space showing only that icon over one shared with another industry. Pay the cost shown on your mat and consume the iron and coal shown. Coal Mines and Iron Works get cubes from the supply, and a Brewery gets one barrel in the Canal Era or two in the Rail Era. If you build an Iron Works, or a Coal Mine that is connected to any Merchant space, immediately move as many cubes as possible to that market, filling the most expensive spaces first, and take the money shown. If the tile empties, flip it and advance your income. Cubes only go to market on the turn the tile is built.

In the Canal Era you may have only one of your own tiles per location, though others may build there too, and in the Rail Era you may build several. Tiles marked for the other era may not be built. To clear those from your mat you Develop. Overbuilding lets you replace a tile with a higher level tile of the same industry, paying full cost. Your own tiles you may overbuild freely, returning any resources on them to the supply. An opponent's tile you may overbuild only if it is a Coal Mine or Iron Works and there are no cubes of that type anywhere on the board, including its market. Overbuilt tiles are removed and score nothing. If you have no tiles on the board at all, you may discard an Industry card to build that industry anywhere, or any card to build a link anywhere.

Coal must come from the nearest connected unflipped Coal Mine, any player's, for free, and if you are not connected to one you buy from the Coal Market starting at the cheapest space, which requires a connection to a Merchant icon. Iron comes from any unflipped Iron Works anywhere, free, and only otherwise from the Iron Market. If a market is empty, coal costs eight pounds each and iron six. Beer comes from your own unflipped Breweries with no connection needed, from an opponent's Brewery you are connected to, or from a Merchant space when selling.

Network places one link adjacent to your network. In the Canal Era that is one canal link for three pounds. In the Rail Era it is one rail link for five pounds, or two rail links for fifteen pounds plus one beer from a brewery, never Merchant beer. Each rail link also consumes one coal, and each is placed separately and must reach a coal source after it is placed.

Develop removes one or two tiles from your mat, each the lowest of its industry, consuming one iron each. Pottery tiles showing the lightbulb icon can never be developed away. Sell lets you flip any number of your unflipped Cotton Mills, Manufacturers and Potteries that are connected to a Merchant showing that industry's icon, consuming the beer shown on each tile. Using the Merchant's own beer also gives you that Merchant's bonus: a free develop, two income spaces, victory points, or five pounds. Loan gives you thirty pounds and moves your income back three income levels, not spaces, and is forbidden if it would take you below minus ten. Scout discards two extra cards to take one Wild Location and one Wild Industry card, and is forbidden if you already hold a wild card.

An era ends after the round in which everyone plays out their last cards. Score each of your links for the victory point icons in the locations it touches, removing links as they score, then score the points in the bottom left of your flipped tiles. Unflipped tiles score nothing. Between eras, remove all level one industry tiles from the board, top up the Merchant beer, shuffle all discard piles into a new draw deck, and draw new hands of eight. If you ever cannot pay negative income, you must remove your own industry tiles from the board for half their cost rounded down, stopping as soon as you have enough, and if you still fall short you lose one victory point per pound. After Rail Era scoring the most points wins, ties broken by highest income, then most money, and if still level the players draw.

A turn, played out

It is mid Canal Era and your turn. You hold 9 pounds. You have 2 unflipped Cotton Mills. The western one sits in a town your canal already links to a Merchant space showing the cotton icon, with 1 barrel beside it. The eastern one is in a town with no link to any Merchant yet. You also own an unflipped Brewery with 1 barrel on it. For your first action you Sell. You discard a card, and any card will do, since only Build cares which. The western mill needs 1 beer. You could take it from your own Brewery, but you take the Merchant's barrel instead, and that Merchant's bonus is 5 pounds. You now have 14. The mill flips face up and your income marker advances. Now it can score at the end of the era. The eastern mill cannot be sold this turn, because it is not connected to a cotton Merchant. So your second action is Network. You discard another card and pay 3 pounds for 1 canal link. The eastern town counts as part of your network because your mill is there. That lets you lay the link from it to the town your existing canal runs through, joining the eastern mill to that same Merchant. The 3 pounds go onto your Character tile, not the bank. You end with 11 pounds and refill to 8 cards. The player to your left has already spent 12 this round, so you will act before them next round. Next turn, your own Brewery's barrel can sell the eastern mill without needing any connection to it.