Brass: Lancashire rules refresher

Read the refresher

Most victory points at the end of the Rail Era wins. You get there by building industries and links across Lancashire, flipping those industries by selling cotton or shipping out coal and iron, and pushing your income up along the way.

For setup, use the Full Map side of the board at every player count. Remove all cards and Distant Cotton Market tiles that do not show your player count, including the two cards marked with the exclamation icon. At two players, the blue and teal location cards are out of the deck; at three players, the teal ones are out. Locations whose cards are removed can still be built in. Shuffle the deck and slide the Deck tile, Stephenson's Rocket side up, near the bottom with one card per player underneath it. Those cards are not part of the Canal Era deck. Shuffle the remaining Distant Cotton Market tiles face down, put the Distant Cotton Market marker on the top space of its track, seed one black cube on every Coal Market space and one orange cube on every Iron Market space. Each player takes thirty pounds, stacks their industry tiles on their mat with the black topped side face down, puts their victory point marker on zero and their income marker on ten, and draws a hand of eight. Character tiles go on the turn order track in random order.

The game runs two eras, Canal then Rail, each played in rounds until 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, when you take only one. Every single action costs you a card discarded face up to your discard pile, and that includes passing. Your options are Build, Network, Develop, Sell, Loan, or pass. Only Build cares which card you discard. All money you spend goes onto your character tile on the turn order track, not into the bank. After your actions, refill your hand to eight if you can. At the end of the round, reorder the turn order track: whoever spent the least this round goes first next round, whoever spent the most goes last, and players who spent the same keep their relative order. Then sweep that money into the bank and everyone takes income equal to their income level, or pays it if the level is negative. Income is not collected at the end of the final round of the game.

To Build, you must discard a matching card. A location card lets you build any industry at that named location, even outside your network. An industry card lets you build that industry in a location that is part of your network. A location counts as part of your network if it holds one of your industry tiles or is adjacent to one of your link tiles. You may also discard any two cards to use both your actions at once and treat them as any one location card, and you still refill two cards. If you have no industry or link tiles on the board at all, you may discard an industry card as an action to build that industry in any location with a free space for it. Always take the lowest level tile of that industry from your mat. Place it on an undeveloped space showing that industry's icon, preferring a space showing only that icon over a shared space. In the Canal Era you may have at most one of your own tiles per location, though other players may also build there. In the Rail Era you may build several tiles in one location. Tiles marked on your mat as belonging to the other era cannot be built now, and shipyards marked with the no build symbol can never be built. The only way to clear those off your mat is the Develop action.

Pay the cost printed beside the slot on your mat and consume any coal and iron shown. Coal must come from the nearest connected unflipped coal mine, owned by anyone, and that is free; if two are equally close, pick one. If you are not connected to an unflipped coal mine, you may buy from the Coal Market at the cheapest price, but only if you are connected to a market trade icon, which appears on every port tile, flipped or not, and on some edge locations. If the Coal Market is empty, coal costs five pounds each. Iron is easier: take it free from any unflipped iron works anywhere on the board, no connection needed, and otherwise buy from the Iron Market cheapest first, or five pounds each if it is empty. Two locations are connected if you can trace a route of link tiles owned by anybody between them.

When you build a coal mine or iron works, load it with cubes from the supply. If it is an iron works, or a coal mine connected to a market trade icon, immediately move as many cubes as will fit into its market, filling the most expensive spaces first, and collect the money shown beside each space you fill. Cubes only ever go to the market at the moment the tile is built, never later. If that empties the tile, it flips at once. In general, coal mines and iron works flip when their last cube is taken, which often happens on someone else's turn. Shipyards flip the instant they are built. Cotton mills and ports flip through the Sell action. Every time one of your tiles flips, advance your income marker by the number of spaces in its bottom right corner, and note you cannot go above income level thirty.

You may also Overbuild. Replacing one of your own tiles with a higher level tile of the same industry is always allowed, paying the full build cost, and any cubes on the old tile go back to the supply. You may overbuild an opponent's tile only if it is a coal mine or an iron works, and only when there are no cubes of that resource anywhere on the board, including in its market. Overbuilt tiles leave the game and never score, but their owner keeps the income and points already gained.

Network: discard any card and place a link tile on an undeveloped line adjacent to a location in your network. In the Canal Era that is one canal link for three pounds, maximum one per action. In the Rail Era it is one rail link for five pounds, or two rail links for fifteen pounds in a single action, and each rail link consumes one coal, placed and connected separately.

Develop: discard any card, remove one or two tiles from your mat, each the lowest level tile of its industry at the moment you remove it, and consume one iron for each.

Sell: discard any card, then choose one of your unflipped cotton mills. You can sell it through an unflipped port owned by anyone that your mill is connected to, which flips that port and advances its owner's income. Or you can sell to the Distant Cotton Market, provided the marker is not on the X space and your mill is connected to a market trade icon. Flip the top Distant Cotton Market tile, move the marker down the track by the number shown, and advance your income by the amount beside the marker's new position. If the marker reaches the X, the Sell action ends immediately and that mill does not flip. Otherwise flip your cotton mill and take its income bump. You may repeat the process with each of your other unflipped cotton mills in the same Sell action, choosing a port or the distant market each time.

Loan: discard any card, take ten, twenty or thirty pounds, and move your income marker back one, two or three income levels, landing on the highest space within the new level. You cannot take a loan that would drop you below income level minus ten, and you cannot take loans in the final four rounds of the Rail Era. When the Deck tile appears Nathan Rothschild side up, you have one more round of borrowing left. If you ever cannot pay negative income, you must remove your own industry tiles from the board, each worth half its build cost rounded down, stopping as soon as you have enough; those tiles leave the game and you keep any excess. If you still cannot pay, lose one victory point per pound short. That is the only reason you may ever sell tiles.

An era ends after the round in which everyone plays their last card. Score each of your link tiles for one point per victory point icon shown in the locations it touches, removing the links as you score them. Then, after all links are gone, score the points printed on your flipped industry tiles. Unflipped tiles score nothing. At the end of the Canal Era, also remove every level one industry tile from the board, reset the Distant Cotton Market marker and reshuffle its tiles, shuffle the cards below the Deck tile together with all discard piles into a new draw deck, everyone draws eight, and insert the Deck tile Nathan Rothschild side up with two cards per player beneath it. At the end of the Rail Era, additionally score one point for every ten pounds in your player area. Most points wins, ties broken first by highest income, then by most money left, and if still level those players share the win.

A turn, played out

It is mid Canal Era and you are about to take your 2 actions. On the board you have 2 unflipped cotton mills. One sits in a town to the east. The other sits farther north, linked by the blue player's canals to an edge location showing a market trade icon. The red player has an unflipped port 1 canal line away from your eastern mill, but nothing is built on that line yet. So far this round the player to your left has spent 11 pounds. Your first action is Network. You discard a coal mine card you have no use for. Only Build cares which card you discard. You pay 3 pounds onto your character tile, not into the bank, and lay a canal link on that empty line. It is legal because your mill makes the eastern town part of your network, and the line touches it. Your second action is Sell, and you discard another card. The eastern mill is now connected to the red port, so you sell through it. The port flips, and red's income marker climbs by the number in its bottom right corner. Your mill flips too, and your income rises by the number in its corner. The northern mill cannot use that port, because it is flipped now. It could still take the Distant Cotton Market, since the marker is not on the X and the mill reaches that trade icon. You flip the top tile. It shows 2, so the marker drops 2 spaces. It stops short of the X, so you gain the income printed beside its new space. The mill flips, and its own corner bump follows. Had the marker hit the X, the action would have ended there and the northern mill would have stayed unflipped. You draw 2 cards to get back to 8. At the end of the round you will have spent just 3 pounds against your left neighbour's 11. That puts you ahead of them on the turn order track next round.