Brass: Birmingham Loans, Income, and Turn Order

Brass: Birmingham is an economic game, but money is not the score. Leftover money only breaks ties, and only after income. The rulebook’s first beginner tip says exactly this: do not be afraid of loans, because your final income level is worth no VPs. This lesson turns that tip into numbers.

How the income track works

Your income marker starts on the 10 space of the progress track, which is income level 0. Spaces and levels are not the same thing:

• Flips move spaces. When one of your tiles flips, move your income marker up the number of spaces shown on the tile.
• Loans move levels. A loan moves you back 3 levels, not 3 spaces.
• Levels stretch as you climb. Near the bottom of the track, each space is its own level. Higher up, several spaces share one level, so the same flip raises your income less.

Your income level can never go above 30, and a loan can never take it below -10.

After each round, everyone collects their income level in money, or pays it if it is negative. The one exception is the last round of the game, which pays no income.

What a loan costs

A loan gives £30 now and moves your marker back 3 income levels, onto the highest space of the new level. That means £3 less in every income phase left in the game.

With 4 players, the game has 16 rounds and 15 income phases. Here is what the same loan costs at different times:

An early loan costs more than it gives. It is worth taking when the £30 buys something that returns more: a tile that flips soon and raises your income, a level 2 tile that scores in both eras, or a link into a busy town. Late loans are cheap. A loan on your final turn of the game costs only the action and the card.

Turn order is bought with spending

Every pound you spend during the round goes on your character tile: build costs, link costs, and coal or iron bought from the markets. At the end of the round, the player who spent least goes first next round, and the biggest spender goes last. Ties keep their current order.

A loan adds nothing to your spending, so a turn with a loan and a cheap action keeps you near the front.

Going first gives you first pick: the merchant beer, the cheapest market cubes, and the open spaces in a busy town. Going last lets you see every other move before you act.

The double turn

Turn order changes every round, and that creates a useful seam. If you are last this round and spend the least, you are first next round. Your two turns come back to back with nobody acting in between: four actions in a row. That is enough to build a tile, connect it, and sell it before anyone can take your merchant beer or your space.

The reverse also works. Spend big in one round when you want to act last in the next, for example to see what everyone else does before a key sell.

Negative income and shortfalls

If your income level is negative, you pay that amount after each round. If you cannot pay, you must remove your own industry tiles from the board, never links. Each one raises half its cost, rounded down, and leaves the game. You stop as soon as you have enough. If you still come up short, you lose 1 VP for each £1 you cannot pay.

That is a hard place to be. Loans are strong, but keep enough income, or enough cash, to cover what you owe each round.

Money in the tiebreak

Ties go to the higher income level, then to more money. That is the only value either one has when the game ends. It rarely decides a game, but it is the one real cost of a final-turn loan.

A loan checklist

Before you take a loan, ask:

1. What will this £30 build this turn or next?
2. How many income phases are left, so what does it cost?
3. Could a loan a few rounds later do the same job for less?
4. If it drops my income below 0, can I pay every round?

Income in Brass: Birmingham behaves like any engine: slow at first, then strong. Our guide to engine building explains that curve, and why early investments feel bad right up until they pay.