Congrats on the new “high score”, @SpiceTheCat! 
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So…Brass is next correct?
If so, please send some basic strategies my way. A couple of us just played a practice game and I was terrible.
I feel like the tutorial isn’t great at giving you what you need to be successful. Any tips are appreciated. Thanks!
@HostileApostle
I have watched this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_D9xrx15gQ and the extended play through in that series over the past couple weeks. I am still losing badly to the AI, but less and less each time I try. I do think I have a better overall idea of what I should be doing. But I think I am still all over the place. I suspect there are some opening moves that dictate direction you should be going in and they are not clear to me.
Brass hints
Brass is a fascinating game because of the way the players’ economies are coupled. Everything you build can help other players, and often you want the competition to use your buildings. Efficient use of your limited actions is where you win. The two-act structure of the game is unique, and demands a change in play style as well.
Industrial Revolution England was the Silicon Valley of its day. Think like a tech bro - taking on debt is good, building flashy stuff and selling it quickly is king, and no one cares about income. You’re building for prestige, not the dreariness of some balance sheet.
0 Generally
- don’t try and do everything. Very broadly, concentrate mainly on one of mills or ports. This will depend on your cards to some extent.
- Try and build what the other players are not building.
- It’s ok to use other players’ ports, coal mines and iron works.
- Take £30 loans or don’t bother.
1 Canal Phase
- don’t build canals unless necessary. They take up an action for not many points.
- Don’t build L1 ports or mills. Developing away L1 buildings is a good idea.
- aim as a rule of thumb to get at least 30 VPs that will stay on the board into the rail phase.
- Get your L1 ironworks and coal mine down or developed away. L2+ ironworks and coal mines will be your income engines to help you afford the loans.
2 Rail Phase
- building rails is worthwhile. Look at the 7 and 6 VP links.
- Remember you can now build more than once in each town.
6 Likes
I feel like everyone was playing better than me, so I’m happy to have eked out second. Good game!
Nice hints, @SpiceTheCat
A few other points:
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Taking loans is important - especially at the end of the Canal Phase, because rails are expensive - Also note you cannot take loans in the last 4 rounds of the game!
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Watching the markets is key so you can potentially “build and flip” (exhaust) your coal mines and ironworks for points and income in one fell swoop (if the coal or iron market has empty space, the resources in your new building will automatically be consumed)
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On L1 building, I would dispute building Ports because it’s actually good to have those spaces free again in the Rail Age
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There’s a connection between developing and the markets too because development costs iron - you have to watch how much you will need to spend to develop and, on the other hand, if other players develop ahead of you it can be a good time to build an Ironworks because you can often flip it right away
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Shipyards can make a huge difference, but require significant investment
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Building coal mines before other buildings can let you flip two buildings in one go because you can consume your own coal to build your other buildings
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Cotton + port = £££
3 Likes
Thanks for the responses! I’ll try to grind out a few bot games and see if I can improve.
Well played guys! I am an idiot though - I thought that one of our goals was sets of 1, 2 and 4 so was very proudly assembling lots of sets only to find out that the actual goal was to have a different number on each cell of a row!
@whovian223 63
@JMH.75 52
@JaneHatke 40
For once, I actually achieved my colour goal pretty well. Usually that’s what ends up killing me.
Great game!
Gg
Wow - close game!
Another lightning round there, as expected for a well-implemented app and fairly lightweight game.
I will post the standings and kick off Brass after everyone has had a few days to download and perhaps play through some turns.
Here’s the play-thru video again:
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gg! thought I had it up until the very end when my secret objective of blue dice scored. Think I took every blue die that came my way for a whopping… 8 points.
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Note that as reported over in the Journalism thread, the Terraforming Mars servers were taken offline and it is unclear if it when they will come back. We are still a ways out from TfM, but it may need to be replaced in the decathon.
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Hi everyone!
Our fourth game is an economic game, ranked #19 overall on BGG, and will be a challenge for most with its 3.86 / 5.00 Complexity rating - Brass! (a.k.a. Brass: Lancashire since my excellent friends at Roxley Games put out the sequel! )
Link to the App Store is above…
The first player at each table will please create a private game and post the password here or in a SP message to the others (be sure to set the time to 30 days) and the winner of each game will please post a screenshot of the final outcome, including scores.
Good luck and happy gaming!
Here are the tables, in standing order:
Table 1
@KYakerDude
@SpiceTheCat
@Hardco
Table 2
@irishdomer08
@Codington
@feederofgoats
Table 3
@Schlotzky
@doublebullout
@JammaTal
Table 4
@geigerm
@JHTaube
@johnl
Table 5
@HostileApostle
@Baelnor
@kennfusion
Table 6
@jason1002
@whovian223
@Mirefox
Table 7
@JMH.75
@js619
@JaneHatke
4 Likes