Brass: Birmingham rules

Build canals and railways as industrialists racing to grow the Midlands economy.

Players: 2–4
Time: 60–120 min
Ages: 14+
Goal: Build a network of canals and railways linking industries across the Midlands. Score Victory Points from your Link tiles and your flipped Industry tiles at the end of each of the game's two eras — the player with the most VP after the Rail Era wins.

How to play Brass: Birmingham

Trim for player count: first remove any cards and Merchant tiles marked for a higher player count than you have.
Give each player their Player Mat, their full set of Industry tiles stacked on the matching Player Mat slots (black-top-half side down), their full set of Link tiles, a Character tile, and £17.
Set the trackers: place your VP Marker on the '0' space and your Income Marker on the '10' space of the Progress Track.
Deal hands: separate the Wild Location and Wild Industry cards face up onto their own 2 Card Draw Areas. Shuffle the rest into the Draw Deck and deal each player 8 cards, plus 1 more face down to start their Discard Pile.
Place Merchant tiles: shuffle the Merchant tiles and place 1 face up on each Merchant space marked for your player count, with a beer barrel beside each non-blank one.
Fill the Markets: put a cube on every space of the Coal Market and the Iron Market, except the Coal Market's cheapest space and both of the Iron Market's cheapest spaces, which stay open.
Supply & Bank: place the remaining cubes and beer barrels beside the board as the General Supply, and the money beside it as the Bank.
Set turn order: shuffle everyone's Character tile onto the Turn Order Track in random order.

2 or 3 players: remove the Location cards and leave Merchant spaces empty as listed for your count.
First round is special: in round 1 of the Canal Era only, each player takes just 1 action instead of the usual 2.
Income level: read the coin printed beside your Income Marker's current space, not the space's own number — starting on the '10' space is worth £0 income, not £10.

Take 2 actions a turn (1 in the very first round). Each action discards a card.

Build: a Location card builds in that town; an Industry card builds that industry in your network, or anywhere before you have any tiles.
Network: build a Link tile next to your network.
Develop: remove 1 or 2 tiles from your Player Mat, paying 1 iron each.
Sell: flip your Cotton Mills, Manufacturers or Potteries connected to a Merchant that buys them, paying any beer they need.
Loan: take £30 and drop your income 3 levels.
Scout: discard 3 cards for a Wild Location and a Wild Industry card.

Pass: discard a card instead of acting.
Refill your hand to 8 after both actions.
Money you spend goes on your Character tile and decides next round's turn order.

Link costs: a canal Link is £3 in the Canal Era. In the Rail Era, 1 rail Link is £5 plus 1 coal, or 2 are £15 plus 2 coal and 1 beer.
Connected locations are joined by anyone's Link tiles.
Coal: take it free from the nearest connected Coal Mine, or else buy from the Coal Market (needs a connection to a Merchant).
Iron: take it free from any Iron Works, connected or not, or else buy from the Iron Market.
Beer: from your own Brewery, a connected opponent's, or the Merchant you're selling to.
Flipped tiles raise their owner's income. A tile flips when its last cube or barrel is used, or when it's sold.
Overbuilding: replace a tile with a higher-level one of the same industry. You can only overbuild an opponent's Coal Mine or Iron Works, once that resource is gone everywhere.

Points come mostly at the end of each era.

End of round: set the new turn order, then everyone collects income (not after the game's final round). Negative income is paid instead.
End of an era: each of your Link tiles scores 1 VP per Link icon in the locations it joins; then score the VP on each of your flipped Industry tiles.
End of the Canal Era: Level 1 tiles go and new hands are dealt for the Rail Era.

Example: 2 Link tiles worth 3 and 2, plus flipped tiles worth 4, 5 and 8, score 22 VP at the end of an era.

Game end: an era ends after the round in which everyone plays their last card. The Rail Era's end ends the game.
Introductory game: play only the Canal Era, then score the extras on its card.
Winner: most VP. Ties go to the highest income, then the most money.