How to Review a Game of Brass: Birmingham

Most games of Brass: Birmingham end with a winner, a groan, and the box going back on the shelf. That is a waste of the best teacher you have. A ten-minute review after the game shows where the points came from, and where they leaked away. Players who review get better faster than players who only play more.

Record the score as it happens

You cannot review what you did not write down. At each era scoring, note four numbers for every player:

Move the VP markers as normal, but say each player’s link total and industry total out loud while someone writes them down. It adds a minute to each scoring and gives you the whole shape of the game.

Read the shape

Compare your four numbers with the winner’s. A few patterns come up again and again:

• Low Canal Era industry VPs. Too many unflipped tiles at the end of the era, or too many level 1 tiles that scored once and left.
• Low Rail Era link VPs. Rails into quiet towns, or too few rails, often because coal was hard to reach.
• A big gap in Rail Era industry VPs. The winner built high-level tiles early in the Rail Era and flipped them; the rest arrived late or stayed unflipped.
• Level 2 tiles that scored only once. A tile built in the Canal Era that flipped only in the Rail Era scored once. Flipped before the era break, it would have scored twice.

Count the leaks

Next, look for points that never happened:

1. Unflipped tiles at each era’s end. Each one cost its build and scored nothing.
2. Money left at the end. Pounds that became nothing. With the last round paying no income, a big final balance usually means a missed build or a missed final-turn loan.
3. Passes and weak actions. Any action that did not build, link, sell, develop toward a tile you used, or fund one of those.
4. Merchant barrels you missed. Each one was a bonus someone else took.

Find the swing

Every close game turns on a few moments. Ask each player one question: “What was the turn where the game turned?” Common answers:

• A rival reached merchant beer one turn before you.
• A coal mine ran dry and your rails had to buy from the market.
• A double turn let a rival build, connect, and sell before you could answer.
• A town you planned to fill was taken.

The swing is rarely a single bad move. It is usually a plan that depended on something you did not control. The fix is often to act one round earlier, or to own the resource yourself.

Keep a short log

Over a month of games, the same leaks repeat. Keep a single line per game:

• Your four score numbers.
• Unflipped tiles at each era’s end.
• Money at the end.
• The swing, in a few words.

After five or six games, read the log top to bottom. The leak that shows up most is the one to fix next, and it is usually easier than you think.

Review kindly

A review is for learning, not for scorekeeping about who played badly. Start with something each player did well, such as a link that scored more than expected or a perfectly timed sell. Then ask questions rather than handing out verdicts. Tables that review this way keep reviewing, and they all get better together.

For keeping a regular group playing heavy games together, see our guide to keeping a group together.