Last week I explained Brass to two new players and those were pretty much exactly what I told them, haha. One more hint is to look closely at your hand cards and think about possible bottle neck cards and how to stay flexible in the first half of the game.
You should develop at least 2 times in the canal era, but in the vast majority of the games I do it 3 times. You don't need to develop iron though. My favorite thing to do is to start right away with loan on turn 1 and follow it up with a develop into lvl 1 iron should the opportunity arise on turn turn 2. Flipping lvl 1 offsets the loan, will score you some points and saves another develop action. From here on always observe when an opportunity arises to flip iron. Whatever you have planned out in advance might be worth reconsidering if you can flip iron. It is perfectly fine even to overbuild your lvl1 iron with lvl2 in canal if that's the only way to flip it. In a 4 player game a strategy with asap developing away your lvl1 beers and from then on always build beer and flip iron whenever you can will very reliably end up in the 140+ - 150 score in the end. Depending on what your opponents do you supplement this strategy with some manufacturer or flip a lvl1 pottery. You don't need to go too high on manufacturer. This is the easiest to follow strategy it even works well if your card rng is bad. Of course there are many ways to play this game, but I've found this strategy to be easy and reliable.
Develop when You don't need in steam era or building pottery is controversional. You lose move to develop, and profits in most situations are small, sometimes negative (first level cotton better than second level, first level manufactury better too because on start you need to rise income). Additional like You say give to opponet good move with build iron works.
Only played it once and it seemed really lopsided. The person who built next to the merchant with beer basically could do loads of development and no one else could access the merchant. Is this how it works? A race to the merchant and block everyone else from using them?
Developing costs iron, which doesn't require you to connect to the market. And regardless, there are multiple places to connect to the market, so this shouldn't have been a game-breaking issue. Sorry to hear that it wasn't a great experience, but is it possible that you had a rule or two wrong during your play?
You can use that path even if someone is there, by using their canals. It isn't like Ticket To Ride where you can only use others' paths with a station; you can use anyone's paths as long as they're connected to yours, which is why they're worth decent points at the end of the game.
King makes another video... I want to live in your house and play games everyday.. 😅 Had a question tho. Can you elaborate a bit more why you should allways buy 2 railroads? :) Yeah I get locking up routes so no other get the points but still.. Thy money and all that. Would be cool to hear you explain your orn strategy more :)
It's all about action efficiency. The cost may be high, but because they can earn so many points (usually between 4 and 8 each), it's better to build two at once if you can afford it than to build two over the course of two actions. The money you save isn't worth the action you lose.
Brass is a true let-down for me, it all comes down to having breweries in the end, to be able to develop ANYTHING on your board (except coal and iron of course)! The possibilities are VERY limited and the game is too boiled down of a game for my taste, not enough options! When I want to play a limited game I can play chess! But that's why I chose to play boardgames in the first place, because I don't like the narrow limitations of classical boardgames like chess! I prefer games that give me options and multiple strategical choices and Brass is not providing much of versatility, no special effects that you can use, just the plain boardgame! Feels bland to me! Disappointed to see this at current number 2 on BGG
The narrow limitations of chess ?… that is the first time I’ve heard that comment . It’s probably the only board game with a billion squared combinations and permutations .
How does chess have narrow limitations? Doesn't it have a branching factor of about 21, and more game states than atoms in the universe? What games have enough options and multiple strategic choices to you? Also what kinds of special effects do you want on top of just the boardgame? Holograms? Pyrotechnics? Or do you mean TCG-style complex & specified special powers(which ironically tend to narrow down the most feasible/powerful game tree options compared to emergent strategies)?
Why would you need "special effects" if the "plain boardgame" itself already has strategic and tactical powers that emerge through positioning and other interactive moves? Doesn't Brass already have beer-iron-coal, early upgrading, merchant, and other strategies? How can chess not have multiple strategic options when there are at least 400 openings? Do "special effects" that bend the plain rules of the boardgame, yet often railroad you to small subsets of the decision tree, give you more sense of options than the game's own whole tree(not pruned to a few paths that fit your special effects)?
Agree 100% (well 80%); I think Cotton is a big trap for new players because it's so hard to get points out of them. But three words really changed my view on the canal phase, whenever possible: Beer. on. Uttoxeter.
Getting a ceramics factory built and selling in the canal era is amazing. So many points earned
Fuel is really important for making it through the late game. Whether that's coal or a massive Toblerone.
:D
Don't be afraid to scout, having those wild cards can make sure you can adapt to a wrench you might be thrown.
Last week I explained Brass to two new players and those were pretty much exactly what I told them, haha. One more hint is to look closely at your hand cards and think about possible bottle neck cards and how to stay flexible in the first half of the game.
My best tip, always think about points per dollar spent. It's all about efficiency people.
And perhaps more importantly points per action. Actions are the most valuable resource in the game
Super good startegies! If you are playing in the World Series of Board Gaming these are some of the top things to keep in mind.
You should develop at least 2 times in the canal era, but in the vast majority of the games I do it 3 times. You don't need to develop iron though. My favorite thing to do is to start right away with loan on turn 1 and follow it up with a develop into lvl 1 iron should the opportunity arise on turn turn 2. Flipping lvl 1 offsets the loan, will score you some points and saves another develop action.
From here on always observe when an opportunity arises to flip iron. Whatever you have planned out in advance might be worth reconsidering if you can flip iron. It is perfectly fine even to overbuild your lvl1 iron with lvl2 in canal if that's the only way to flip it.
In a 4 player game a strategy with asap developing away your lvl1 beers and from then on always build beer and flip iron whenever you can will very reliably end up in the 140+ - 150 score in the end. Depending on what your opponents do you supplement this strategy with some manufacturer or flip a lvl1 pottery. You don't need to go too high on manufacturer.
This is the easiest to follow strategy it even works well if your card rng is bad. Of course there are many ways to play this game, but I've found this strategy to be easy and reliable.
Great suggestions!
You contradict yourself with saying don't develop iron then go on to say its your main strategy
@@Filthyy1 Ah, I actually wanted to write don't develop coal I think. Was long ago, but I remember not devloping coal and building iron.
Develop when You don't need in steam era or building pottery is controversional. You lose move to develop, and profits in most situations are small, sometimes negative (first level cotton better than second level, first level manufactury better too because on start you need to rise income). Additional like You say give to opponet good move with build iron works.
Hypnotized by the giant ǝuoɹǝlqo┴ in the background.
Got to make sure that Nick watches this video. 😗
Only played it once and it seemed really lopsided. The person who built next to the merchant with beer basically could do loads of development and no one else could access the merchant. Is this how it works? A race to the merchant and block everyone else from using them?
Developing costs iron, which doesn't require you to connect to the market. And regardless, there are multiple places to connect to the market, so this shouldn't have been a game-breaking issue. Sorry to hear that it wasn't a great experience, but is it possible that you had a rule or two wrong during your play?
You can use that path even if someone is there, by using their canals. It isn't like Ticket To Ride where you can only use others' paths with a station; you can use anyone's paths as long as they're connected to yours, which is why they're worth decent points at the end of the game.
It sounds like you got a rule wrong. Whenever you play a game, and feel that something is overpowered or lobsided, probably check the rules.
King makes another video... I want to live in your house and play games everyday.. 😅
Had a question tho. Can you elaborate a bit more why you should allways buy 2 railroads? :) Yeah I get locking up routes so no other get the points but still.. Thy money and all that. Would be cool to hear you explain your orn strategy more :)
It's all about action efficiency. The cost may be high, but because they can earn so many points (usually between 4 and 8 each), it's better to build two at once if you can afford it than to build two over the course of two actions. The money you save isn't worth the action you lose.
cool =) thanks. One more question. What happened to the funny guy you made the video about TI4 with ? :D@@RTFM
Nick still helps me out sometimes with videos, but he's got his own stuff going on, so we don't collaborate as much these days.@@sylvander4972
Brass is a true let-down for me, it all comes down to having breweries in the end, to be able to develop ANYTHING on your board (except coal and iron of course)! The possibilities are VERY limited and the game is too boiled down of a game for my taste, not enough options! When I want to play a limited game I can play chess! But that's why I chose to play boardgames in the first place, because I don't like the narrow limitations of classical boardgames like chess! I prefer games that give me options and multiple strategical choices and Brass is not providing much of versatility, no special effects that you can use, just the plain boardgame! Feels bland to me! Disappointed to see this at current number 2 on BGG
The narrow limitations of chess ?… that is the first time I’ve heard that comment . It’s probably the only board game with a billion squared combinations and permutations .
This is a very bad take lmfao
How does chess have narrow limitations? Doesn't it have a branching factor of about 21, and more game states than atoms in the universe?
What games have enough options and multiple strategic choices to you?
Also what kinds of special effects do you want on top of just the boardgame? Holograms? Pyrotechnics? Or do you mean TCG-style complex & specified special powers(which ironically tend to narrow down the most feasible/powerful game tree options compared to emergent strategies)?
Good news, it's not #2 anymore!
Why would you need "special effects" if the "plain boardgame" itself already has strategic and tactical powers that emerge through positioning and other interactive moves?
Doesn't Brass already have beer-iron-coal, early upgrading, merchant, and other strategies? How can chess not have multiple strategic options when there are at least 400 openings? Do "special effects" that bend the plain rules of the boardgame, yet often railroad you to small subsets of the decision tree, give you more sense of options than the game's own whole tree(not pruned to a few paths that fit your special effects)?
Agree 100% (well 80%); I think Cotton is a big trap for new players because it's so hard to get points out of them. But three words really changed my view on the canal phase, whenever possible: Beer. on. Uttoxeter.
I two handed slam dunked a 4 player game last night because I lucked into double Utoxeter cards on the phase transition. I had beer for days.