Deconstructing Brass: Lancashire
Recently I’ve played a few games of Brass: Lancashire with some friends and it’s gotten me thinking about the strategy of the game. I want to spend some time laying out some my observations, analysis and recommendations. This is mostly a way to organize my own thoughts before my next game.
I have a lot of more nebulous ideas I want to turn into essays, but I’ve struggled to get them into a finished form. This is a fun diversion which is getting me to practice actually publishing something and hopefully I can take that momentum into some other pieces in the near future.
All of my analysis comes from a fairly small sample of games and very little browsing online or discussion with more experienced players. I’m just trying to develop some of my basic strategy an put it in a format that I can present to friends so we have a starting point from which to explore more specific strategies. I’ll do an update if I feel I can go into more depth in the future.
From here on I’ll just refer to the game as “Brass” even though I am speaking about “Brass: Lancashire”.
Fundamental Constraints
The game is all about resources and efficiency. This shouldn’t be surprising. All the euro-style resource games are like this. It works! It’s nice to see a fresh take on it in Brass, but it does come down to the same basic mechanics.
Brass has three fundamental constraints: actions, locations and money. Each one has a different characteristic. Actions are fixed to a certain number over the course of the game. Locations have a fixed pool and you compete with other players to claim them. Money is non-interactive and there’s no limit on the amount you can generate in a game.
Money
Money is the only resource you can really control. The other resources are either fixed or in competition. This means it’s one of the best ways to give yourself more options in the game.
The primary way to do this is the income track. So far every game I’ve played has had the player with the most income win in the end since all that money can be converted into points.
The key observation about income is that it’s best to invest early. Every time you raise your income you will generate that much money on every turn for the rest of the game. So an increase of 1 income with 10 rounds remaining is worth 10 money, but if there are only 3 rounds remaining then it is only worth $3.
Also, the income track is not linear. It costs more income per money generated earlier in the track than later.
This leads to a basic rule that earlier income is more valuable than later income.
Locations
Locations are harder to analyze because they depend on your opponents and the cards you draw. These constrict where you can build and can result in being unable to execute plans if there are no locations to do so.
It may feel like locations are abundant, particularly in the canal era or with fewer players. However, that’s only if you spend actions expanding your network, which uses up your limited actions and costs money. This makes location cards particularly valuable! Though the industry cards seem to have the most flexibility, location cards are more efficient in terms of actions because they do not require additional actions as long as they are connected via any players network. I’ve learned that saving location cards is more important than saving industry cards because they can let you jump outside your network to access locations you might otherwise not be able to.
Also, the double-build action should generally be avoided. It forces you to use use up an extra action and that action can never be retrieved. Building the network and then building the industry tile is almost always better if possible because at least that connection will score points.
You are also more likely to run out of locations with more players there are. Typically the canal era is pretty tame, but the rail era can quickly see locations disappearing as players start to build more aggressively and fill all the tiles in the locations of their network. I’ve also see all of one type of tile be used up in a few places, so that’s something to watch out for. It’s pretty awkward to build a Cotton Mill only to realize there are no more ports and you will have to sell to the distant market and pray for a zero on the market track..
Actions
Actions are the easiest to understand because there is a fixed number of them that isn’t affected by any outside factors or your opponents. However, all your income and points will come from doing actions, so maximizing the impact of each action is critical. I believe the player with the most efficient actions is at a huge advantage over their opponents.
Build
The build action is the only action that can produce income (see sell-action below) and is a primary way to create victory points. The vast majority of actions performed should be build actions to maximize income and points. The other actions largely exist to support building.
The double-build action should be a last resort because it uses up two actions to only get the outcome of one action, losing any potential resources of the second action permanently. It should only be done if the double build is better than any other two available actions combined.
Develop
The develop action does not produce any income or victory points. Future build actions will have their value shift, generally having higher cost, more victory points and lower income. It may not always be good to develop because it uses an up action to increase your costs! You may be better off doing two build actions than developing and then building. Since this action does not generate income it comes at the expense of other income-generating activities. If it displaces an income-generating build by a turn then it is effectively also costing you that lost income.
For example, building two Port I and then a Port II will net you 8 VP and 9 income. Developing away the two Port I and building two Port II will net you 8 VP and 6 income. Both sequences take three actions, provide the same amount of VP, but the second actually provides lower income. Of course, if you are in the canal era then the VP change to 12 and 16 which may be worth it, and you access the later ports sooner as well.
Don’t rush to develop away your level 1 industries because they are a key way to start building up income and points.
Network
The network action does not produce any income, but will give you access to more locations and victory points. The number of victory points is generally pretty low, generally 2-3 in the canal era and 2-6 in the rail era per location. Moreover, while the action is very money-efficient per VP, it comes at the expense of other actions that generate income, meaning that networking for VP is actually very expensive the earlier in the game it is done due to the compounding nature of income. If you build a network action for 3 money on one turn and an industry with 5 income on the next turn, you would make 5 more money if you reversed the order. In this case the network action is actually costing 8 and not efficient.
Networking should be left as late as possible. It’s a great way to snag a few extra VP in the last few rounds of the game where you may be able to spend 15 money to get 6-10 victory points which is pretty efficient (see below).
Loan
Loans will give you an influx of cash immediately but affect your income generation negatively for the rest of the game. This is mitigated by two factors.
A loan taken before generating any income will put you in the negative income track which only takes one income per space to negate, while taking a loan if you are in the 4 income-per-money area could set you back as many as 12 spaces. This leads to the common recommendation to take a loan on the action before you generate your first income of the game.
The other factor is the number of turns left in the game. Taking a loan in the last round they are allowed, with only 4 rounds left, will mean you only pay back 4 rounds worth, so a 30-money loan only incurs a 12-money penalty resulting in a net increase of 18-money. This leads to the other recommendation to take a loan in the last round they are allowed if you think you can use the money in the last four rounds.
Sell
The sell action is interesting to analyze. It is the only way to flip your cotton mills and any ports. I would argue that the sell itself is an action tax on cotton mills. Other people can flip your port tiles, but only you can flip your cotton mills. Therefore every cotton mill commits you to a sell action. This is partially offset by the ability to do multiple sales in the same action, but my experience is that it is rare to be able to set this up since other players will often rush to get to the distant market or ports before you can arrange it.
Treating this action as a tax on cotton mills means the only addition income generated by this action is from the distant market, which is very fickle. I have rarely seen anyone generate more than 3 income from the distant market in a given era, and that only if they rush it ahead of their opponents. It’s worth doing occasionally, but I’m not going to analyze it in depth because it’s effect is relatively small.
It’s very tricky to get a multi-sale to work properly. I just assume that every mill will require a sell action and consider a bonus if I can do two at once.
Analyzing Industry Tiles
With the discussion of actions out of the way, let’s take a look at all the industry tiles and see which ones are most efficient in which ways.
I’m going to price all coal and iron at 1 and I’ll assume that half (rounded up) of the resources on the tile are sold back to the market at the same rate. It’ll sometimes be more, sometimes be less, but this helps to value it without overvaluing it at a higher number.
I am also not accounting for the second-level and higher industry tiles being scored twice in the canal era. All those tiles double in VP efficiency if you can place them during the Canal era.
In this table each industry is listed with all of it’s levels and the VP and income per money and action are calculated.
| Industry Name | Level | Cost | VP | VP/Money | VP/Action | Income | Income/Money | Income/Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton Mill | 1 | 12 | 5 | 0.42 | 2.50 | 5 | 0.42 | 2.50 |
| Cotton Mill | 2 | 16 | 5 | 0.31 | 2.50 | 4 | 0.25 | 2.00 |
| Cotton Mill | 3 | 20 | 9 | 0.45 | 4.50 | 3 | 0.15 | 1.50 |
| Cotton Mill | 4 | 22 | 12 | 0.55 | 6.00 | 2 | 0.09 | 1.00 |
| Port | 1 | 6 | 2 | 0.33 | 2.00 | 3 | 0.50 | 3.00 |
| Port | 2 | 7 | 4 | 0.57 | 4.00 | 3 | 0.43 | 3.00 |
| Port | 3 | 8 | 6 | 0.75 | 6.00 | 4 | 0.50 | 4.00 |
| Port | 4 | 9 | 9 | 1.00 | 9.00 | 4 | 0.44 | 4.00 |
| Shipyard | 1 | 20 | 10 | 0.50 | 6.67 | 2 | 0.10 | 1.33 |
| Shipyard | 2 | 29 | 18 | 0.62 | 12.00 | 1 | 0.03 | 0.67 |
| Iron Works | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1.00 | 3.00 | 3 | 1.00 | 3.00 |
| Iron Works | 2 | 5 | 5 | 1.00 | 5.00 | 3 | 0.60 | 3.00 |
| Iron Works | 3 | 5 | 7 | 1.40 | 7.00 | 2 | 0.40 | 2.00 |
| Iron Works | 4 | 8 | 9 | 1.13 | 9.00 | 1 | 0.13 | 1.00 |
| Coal Mine | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0.33 | 1.00 | 4 | 1.33 | 4.00 |
| Coal Mine | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0.67 | 2.00 | 7 | 2.33 | 7.00 |
| Coal Mine | 3 | 6 | 3 | 0.50 | 3.00 | 6 | 1.00 | 6.00 |
| Coal Mine | 4 | 6 | 4 | 0.67 | 4.00 | 5 | 0.83 | 5.00 |
Cotton Mills
Cotton Mills are actually very poor at generating income and VP. Even Cotton Mill IV only produces 6 VP/action which is on par or worse than Port III and Iron Works III. Two Port III built in two actions and flipped by other players will get you as many points as building one Cotton Mill IV and selling. The VP/money is only 0.55 while the ports are 0.75 so they are cheaper for the same outcome.
Interestingly, the Cotton Mill I are fairly efficient in terms of generating income and pretty poor at generating points. However, they are better at generating VP compared to other level 1 industries. Cotton Mill I are fairly efficient to play in the canal era and will move you towards the higher-level ones.
The later ranks of Cotton Mill will not generate much income and still need extra actions to flip so they become a primarily a way to sink money and turn it into victory points, something that ship yards may be better at.
Build Cotton Mills in the first turns of the game to generate income, but otherwise treat them a way to turn money into victory points and flip your own ports if others are not.
Ports
Ports are fairly efficient in both VP and actions. They will often flip without your interaction, though if you are building cotton mills you will often attempt to flip your own. Ports are a good investment at most stages of the game. You do not need to build Cotton Mills to flip your own ports if other players are building them. Those other players will be spending their action to flip it for you, making the ports very action efficient, generally more so than the Cotton Mills themselves.
Build plenty of ports and encourage other players to flip them for you. Note that there are many more possible Cotton Mill locations than Port locations, so filling those early in the rail era may result in other players being forced to use your ports to generate points.
Shipyards
Shipyard occupy an interesting place because they are the very efficient tiles in terms of VP/action, but some of the worst in terms of income. They have very low VP/money so they really only make sense when you more money than actions, such as near the end of an era.
For my analysis I counted each shipyard as taking 1.5 actions to account for developing away the locked tiles. Building only one Shipyard would be two actions and make the value/action worse, still one of the best in the era, but becoming on par with other options like Port and Iron Works.
Sitting on 30 money when the deck runs out? Consider building a Shipyard!
Iron Works
Iron works are a bit tricky because I rarely see iron in high demand. However, they are some of the most efficient tiles in terms of VP. They also provide a moderate income for their cost at the lower levels, making them a good choice to build when money is tight.
Build Iron Works whenever iron is in demand.
Coal Mine
Coal mines stand out as the best tiles for generating income. The Coal Mine II stands out as being by far the most efficient income generator in the game.
They will easily flip during the rail era as players are forced to build out their networks, but can struggle to flip in the canal era where the board doesn’t need more than one per player.
Every player should aim to build a few coal mines early in the game and flip them. While they are not point-efficient, the early boost in income can have a huge effect throughout the rest of the game. They are very poor choices late because they give fairly few points per action compared to other late-game tiles and the income will not have enough turns to meaningfully accrue.
An unflipped Coal Mine II can be a good investment in the Canal Era because it will provide you access to coal and flip very quickly in the Rail Era. It was never going to score you many points anyway.