How to Teach Brass: Birmingham

Brass: Birmingham has a reputation as a hard teach. Part of that is earned: six actions, three resources, two eras, and a scoring rule that counts other people’s tiles. Most of it comes from hosts who teach everything up front, Rail Era included, to people who have never placed a tile.

This lesson is a host script, in the order you would say it. It assumes you know the rules from the how to play lesson. Print the teach sheet and put it where everyone can reach it.

Before anyone sits down

Set up the whole game first, so the teach starts on a ready board. Deal the hands, put £17 in front of each seat, and set the income markers on the 10 space. Pick the board side now, day or night, so nobody spends the teach admiring the art.

Decide which game you are playing. The rulebook offers an introductory game that plays the Canal Era only, then adds bonus points for money, income, and level 2 and higher tiles. For a table of newcomers on a weeknight, it is a kind choice. For a table that wants the real thing, play both eras and use the split teach below.

Part 1: the goal and the turn

Say: “We are industrialists in the West Midlands. We build industries and link towns with canals, and later railways. Points come twice, at the end of each era: from our industries that have flipped, and from our links.”

Pick up a tile. “A tile flips when it does its job. Mills and factories flip when we sell their goods. Mines, iron works, and breweries flip when their last cube or barrel is used, even by someone else.”

Then the turn: “Two actions a turn, one in the very first round. Every action costs a card. Only Build cares which card. Then refill to eight.”

Part 2: three actions, then three more

Teach Build, Network, and Sell first, with a real example on the board for each:

• Build. Show a location card and an industry card. “This one builds in that town, anywhere. This one builds that industry in a town that is already yours.”
• Network. Place a canal next to a town. “£3, one per action. Now this town is in your network.”
• Sell. Point to a merchant. “Your mill flips when it is connected to a merchant who buys cotton, and you pay the beer shown on the tile.”

Then the other three in one breath: “Develop throws away low tiles from your mat for one iron each. Loan gives £30 and drops your income. Scout trades three cards for two wilds.”

Part 3: one example per resource

Do this on the board, not in the air. Put a coal mine in one town and ask, “Who could use this coal?” Trace the canals. Then put an iron works anywhere and say, “Iron goes anywhere, no canals needed.” Then beer: “Your own beer goes anywhere. A rival’s beer needs a connection. A merchant’s beer only works when you sell to that merchant, and it pays a bonus.”

That is the hardest minute of the teach. Slow down for it.

Part 4: the round and the era

“Money you spend goes on your character tile. Whoever spent least goes first next round. Then everyone takes income.” Point to the income track.

“When the cards run out, the era ends. Each link scores the link icons in the two towns it touches. Then flipped tiles score. Then the canals come off the board.”

Before play, repeat the three Canal Era rules from the teach sheet: one tile per town for each player, coal needs a connection while iron never does, and merchant beer only works when selling to that merchant.

Part 5: the break between eras

At the end of the Canal Era, after scoring, the table is empty of links and full of questions. Now teach the Rail Era, in five lines:

1. Level 1 tiles leave the board. Level 2 and higher tiles stay and can score again.
2. Only rails now: £5 and 1 coal each, or two for £15, 2 coal, and a brewery beer.
3. You may build several of your own tiles in one town.
4. A brewery built now holds two barrels.
5. The last round pays no income.

This is the moment the split teach pays off. Everyone has played one era, so every rule lands on something they have already felt.

Coaching the first game

Help with the rules, not the choices. “Where is that coal coming from?” is a good question to ask out loud before every coal build in the first few rounds. “You should build a brewery” is playing for them.

Watch for two quiet problems: a player holding all their money in the last rounds of an era, and a player with no beer of their own. A single question fixes either: “What will that money build?” or “Where will your beer come from?”

For habits that shorten any teach, see our guide to how to teach a board game.