
Tell them flipping is one of the core Brass principles: it’s the only way to score buildings (and connections) and to increase your income. Players are now probably wondering what is this flipping of the building tiles you mentioned, as this is a peculiarity of Brass. This might be a good moment to quickly go through era differences: building restrictions in the canal era, which buildings get removed (mention the possibility of development here), and the importance of coal in the rail era.īut keep it brief – it will all be clear when the game transitions into the rail era anyway. Go through the general structure of the game: turn order, what to do on your turn (two actions), and eras. There are two means of scoring points: flipped buildings and link tiles and they are scored twice (end of each era). Now it’s time to elaborate on how this “owning” is translated into game terms. That you can own mines, factories, canals, and railroads. Give a slight background of the industrial revolution and how it shaped the world and then explain that this game offers you to be an industrialist. You should start out by explaining what Brass: Birmingham is all about. Overview of the game, victory conditions, and the eras Have a detailed explanation of each concept ready in your head, so you can pour them in during the game, as well as a few basic strategy tips.ġ. Then move on to how the buildings are flipped, how resources and networks work, and which actions are available to the players.
Brass birmingham overbuild how to#
How To Teach Brass: Birmingham To New Players?īrass: Birmingham is best taught to new players by explaining the basic gameplay overview, victory conditions, and canal and rail era differences. This article assumes you do – if you don’t, read the rules/watch a video/play a test game first. Of course, to be a good teacher you need to know the game yourself. It’s not that complicated to teach either – but there are some unconventional concepts that can confuse new players and it’s very important to teach them properly so that they can enjoy Brass: Birmingham from game one. This was followed by re-reading the rules, to see what I did wrong. It was a standard process of reading the rules, setting up a 2-player game, and doing a 2-handed test play. While Brass: Birmingham is regarded as a heavier board game in terms of complexity, I surprisingly had no big problems learning it. I would like to thank Paul Sampson, Kevin Snider and my assistant GM Jack Jung for their help in this years’ Brass tournament.In this article, I will demonstrate a step-by-step procedure on How To Teach Brass: Birmingham To New Players. Ben finished second, followed by Jack then Cary. After some overbuilding and a last gasp shipyard, Greg maintained his small lead to claim victory in Brass. Meanwhile, Greg was hindered by a miss-fitting card draw which forced him into ports and mills. Jack and Cary continued with mills and Ben changed to shipyards, building both ships. At the beginning of the Rail Era no real leader had emerged with victory points ranging from 26 to 39 and the highest income level a modest four. Ben balanced Iron and coal production with port building and Greg focused on Iron Mills in the Canal phase. The Canal period proceeded with Jack playing an efficient mills strategy to build and flip three level 3 Mills, with Cary close behind flipping two level 3 mills.

Advancing to the final was former champ Greg Thatcher, assistant GM Jack Jung, Ben Scholl and Cary Morris. When the survivors emerged from the four semifinal matches, no finalist from the previous year moved on.



A total of 16 qualifiers played in the semifinals to thin the herd. Nineteen preliminary games in this year’s Brass tournament produced two double winners, of which only Cary Morris survived the semifinals to advance to the final. The semi-final and final will still use Brass. Using the same format as the 18xx tournament, either game (Brass or Brass: Birmingham) can be played in the heats with the agreement of all the players at the table. If it is released by the WBC deadline for new games of March 15, 2018, this new game, Brass: Birmingham, will be introduced at next year’s WBC as part of the Brass tournament. This year’s field of forty-three players, participating in 3 preliminary heats, was one of the smallest ever for Brass, but still included ten newcomers.Ī new Brass game has been developed using Kickstarter funding. Ten Newcomers despite decline in Attendance
