Brass: Birmingham - How To Play

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00:00 - Introduction
01:10 - The Setup
04:16 - Gameplay Overview
04:34 - Turn Order
04:52 - The Actions
05:14 - Locations and Lines
06:08 - Being Connected
06:36 - Your Network
07:40 - The Build Action
09:25 - Discarding Wild Cards
09:54 - The Various Industries
12:05 - Consuming Coal
13:45 - Buying Coal
14:26 - Consuming Iron
15:59 - The Iron Market
16:35 - The Coal Market
17:24 - Overbuilding
18:29 - The Network Action
19:35 - The Loan Action
20:25 - The Develop Action
21:32 - The Sell Action
22:20 - Consuming Beer
24:38 - The Scout Action
25:14 - Farm Breweries
25:50 - Passing an Action
25:57 - Ending a Turn
26:06 - Ending a Round
28:23 - Ending the Canal Era
29:50 - Beginning the Rail Era
31:37 - Ending the Rail Era
32:06 - Determining the Winner
32:23 - Conclusion

#watchitplayed #boardgames #tutorial

[twocinc]

For those interested in the differences between Brass: Birmingham and Brass: Lanchashire, here is a list. (Please comment if I've missed something or gotten something wrong.) This list is copied from the reply thread to J. Bertels's comment.

In Lancashire:
1) The only commodity is cotton. There is no pottery, nor manufactured goods.
2) There are no breweries, nor beer. Double rail actions cost 15 pounds and two coal, but no beer.
3) Players can also build ports and shipyards. Shipyards are high point-value industries that flip immediately after being built. Shipyards with a lock symbol on them cannot be built in any era; they must be developed away. Ports are used to sell cotton.
4) Cotton can be sold either to any player's unflipped port (which flips both the port and the cotton mill) or to the distant market (special fixed locations around the edge of the board, or any player's flipped or unflipped port.) When selling to the distant market, players must turn over a distant market tile, reduce the distant market marker by the number on the tile, and then receive the income bonus on the new distant market spot (in addition to the income received from flipping the cotton mill.) If the distant market marker reaches the bottom of the track, the sale is canceled and no further sales to the distant market are possible that era. The distant market track is reset and market tiles reshuffled at the beginning of the rail era.
5) There are no wild cards. Instead, players may discard two cards (using both of their actions for a turn) in order to perform a build action at any location.
6) Players are not allowed to take loans in the final two rounds of the game. There's a placard placed in the draw deck during rail phase setup to remind players of this.
7) Players score 1VP per 10 pounds left in their player area at the end of the game.

[ethanalvarez]

This guy is the GOAT. Every time
I get a game, he’s the man I want to see

[akaisamurai]

No matter the game, it is amazing how much time Rodney saves everybody in a clear and concise manner and the tip to listen to vids at a faster speed is also a good tip. No wonder BGG picked WatchItPlayed up. Keep up the good work and many happy work hours, Rodney.

[glorkspangle]

We were so confused when we unboxed this game earlier. Now we are only slightly confused, and feel able at least to attempt it. Thank you!

[twocinc]

It's helpful to note that the theme ties together some of the rules concepts. In general, *Brass isn't about selling commodities it's about establishing trade routes.* You have to ship coal and not iron because industries (and railroads) require a regular supply of coal to operate, while iron is only needed for maintenance and repairs. Flipping a tile doesn't mean you've exhausted that industry; it means you've established enough trade routes to use its full production capacity. Income represents excess profits, which helps understand why loans operate the way they do. Level 1 industries don't go out of business at the end of the canal phase (they still provide income, and their VPs aren't lost); they're just swamped by the economies of scale possible during the rail phase. Even the canals are still operating; it's just not economical to build more of them once rail is available.

[panczakk]

First I watched two instructions in Polish. But in your instruction I understand more than in my own language! First time I seen something in this channel and its amazing! Really god job! SUBSCRIBED

[cokobware]

Your tutorials are so amazing. The clarity and method of teaching makes it so easy to understand! Thank you so much!

[ColdLife]

I always go to find Rodney's videos before anything else. He's helped me make informed purchases by watching the videos and getting a clear idea of the rules and finding out if a game will be right for me. Thank you so much.

[Penchwintan]

I love that you pronounce the cities correctly. Thanks for this tutorial - I'm playing it for the first time tomorrow and was hoping you'd made a tutorial video for it!!

[JoJoLaPompa]

this how to video is so much better than reading the actual rule book. It's much easier to find the information I look for.

[esstee]

I'm just now investigating euro games as I'm relatively new to (rediscovering) board games and I am so happy Rodney has a video for this game!

[martproduction]

Thanks Rodney! I realize that we made 3 mistakes overall while playing. The understanding of the network, the scoring for canal and rail link which we did count only for our own tile instead of anybody tile and finally the develop action. We forgot to pay 1 iron to do that. We ended up having spent only 4 iron in the whole game lol. I don't know why we forgot that as I read the rule it's pretty clear. I knew there was something we did wrong. THanks for clearing this up!

[Apaal]

Best Tutorial on YouTube for this game. Thank you very much!

[ShineOnYouCD]

Anyone else here since it's now the #1 game on BGG?

[jamessmith]

Thank you so much for this clear video! This helps so much and now it doesn't really seem as bad as people make it. I'm very much looking forward to this!

[jackofdiamonds]

This is the best explanation of the game ever. In my motherlanguage most of it sounds unclear but here everything is on point. Thank you!

[RaduStanculescu]

I already played Birmingham once, but decided to listen to your video, and caught something we had all forgotten: that you'd have to pay with your industries if you had no money and still owed more to the bank during income. I had skimmed the rules during our play and saw the part where you'd lose VPs, but not the one about industries. I think the same rule already existed in the base game, but I hadn't played it in a while, and I've yet to see this happen.

Anyway, I'm saving this to point people to it before they play the game. It's extremely helpful, as are all your videos. :)

[adelfaidah]

Man I am loving these 4k videos. Really helps in seeing all the text and details when showing the board

[KDSBestGameDev]

Usually I watch rule videos in german. We just bought the game. And honestly all german rule videos suck. Since rule videos often contains errors, I still read the rulebook also to know where to look in case of a question.

You are explaining this game extremly well and if I match what you say with the rulebook also flawlessly.

Thank you for that, I finally think I fully understand the game, can teach it to friends and game night is next weekend <3.

[ryancabanas]

Who in the world is giving a thumbs down to this video? Seriously? The organization and content of this video is *way* clearer than the rulebook.