Review: Brass – Lancashire

Introduction & Overview

Welcome to 18th-century Lancashire. The world is on the brink of changing from something we could describe as almost medieval to what we now know as modern times. This shift will become known as the Industrial Revolution, although it will take historians a while to coin that term. Lancashire became the hub of the cotton industry during this period, driven by the inventiveness of Crompton, Arkwright, and Watt, among others. Steam power was paired with new machinery, cotton mills were erected, and coal mines plunged to greater depths to feed these energy-hungry contraptions. Moving coal required canals and later railways, and in this way, this virtuous cycle sparked one innovation after another. Brass recounts a slice of this history in board game form. Its name stems from a traditional Lancashire saying: “where there’s muck there’s brass,” meaning “where there is dirt, there is money.”

This is the premise behind Brass: Lancashire, designed by the great British author Martin Wallace, whose résumé includes celebrated titles such as London, Princes of the Renaissance, Age of Steam, Tinners’ Trail, and A Study in Emerald. The game before us today was first published in English in 2007 by Warfrog Games, followed later by editions from White Goblin Games (in Dutch/French), Pegasus Spiele (in German under the title Kohle: Mit Volldampf zum Reichtum), and Eagle Games (again in English). Illustrations for the first edition were handled by Peter Dennis, Wallace’s go-to artist with collaborations on Age of Steam, A Few Acres of Snow, and Tinners’ Trail, whereas this new edition was illustrated by Lina Cossette, David Forest (both responsible for the look of games like Santorini and Charterstone), and Damien Mammoliti (The Witcher Adventure Game, Edge of Darkness).

The game is published in Spanish by Maldito Games (although it is entirely language-independent apart from the rulebook). It accommodates 2 to 4 players, with a recommended minimum age of 13 and an approximate playing time of 120 to 180 minutes. Its suggested retail price is €54. A review copy of the second edition by Roxley Games was used for this review.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 31.3 × 22.7 × 5.3 cm (a slim rectangular box akin to Hansa Teutonica or Tinners’ Trail), we find the following components:

• Main Board
• 8 Marker Discs (2 in each color: purple, yellow, red, and green) (wooden)
• 66 Cards (56 × 87 mm):
  • 26 Industry Cards
  • 40 Location Cards
• 55 Resource Cubes (wooden):
  • 30 Black Coal Cubes
  • 25 Orange Iron Cubes
• 100 Money Tokens (plastic):
  • 60 Silver Coins of value £5
  • 40 Copper Coins of value £1
• Cotton Demand Marker (wooden)
• 12 Distant Market Tiles (cardboard)
• 148 Industry Tiles (cardboard):
  • 48 Cotton Mill Tiles (12 in each color: purple, yellow, red, and green)
  • 32 Port Tiles (8 in each color: purple, yellow, red, and green)
  • 28 Coal Mine Tiles (7 in each color: purple, yellow, red, and green)
  • 24 Shipyard Tiles (6 in each color: purple, yellow, red, and green)
  • 16 Iron Works Tiles (4 in each color: purple, yellow, red, and green)
• 56 Double-sided Canal/Rail Link Tiles (14 in each color: purple, yellow, red, and green) (cardboard)
• 8 Scoring Markers (2 in each color: purple, yellow, red, and green) (cardboard)
• Rulebook

How to Play

Brass: Lancashire is a game set in the county of Lancashire during the British Industrial Revolution, where players compete to expand their commercial network and establish industries to amass wealth and prestige. The game is divided into two eras (the Canal Era and the Rail Era), structured into rounds where turn order is determined by the amount of money spent in the preceding round (the player who spent the least goes first). On their turn, each player typically has two actions, discarding one card from their hand for each action taken and refilling their hand at the end of the turn. Available actions consist of building industries (cotton mills, coal mines, iron works, ports, and shipyards, matching the played card to the city or industry type), expanding the network (placing canal or rail links on the board), developing industries (discarding lower-level tiles from the player mat using iron to unlock more advanced ones), selling cotton (connecting cotton mills to ports or the foreign market to flip tiles and increase income), or taking a loan (gaining immediate cash at the cost of lowering income levels). When industries run out of resources or complete their requirements, they flip over, raising the ongoing income collected at the end of each round. At the conclusion of each era, transport links and flipped industries score victory points (clearing links and obsolete level-one industries from the map at the close of the Canal Era), with endgame scoring awarding additional points for remaining cash at the end of the Rail Era. The player with the most victory points is crowned the winner.

Key Concepts

Let us begin, as usual, with the Main Board:

• Most of the board depicts a map of Lancashire and its surrounding regions. Across it, we will primarily find a network of towns and cities featuring spaces for building industries, connected by blue lines (canals) or black lines (rail links). The reverse side features the same map tailored for a 2-player game.
• At the bottom left sits the turn order track, featuring four spaces to hold the money spent by each player during the current round.
• The top-left corner features a space for the draw deck.
• Directly beneath it is an area designated for the stack of Distant Market Tiles alongside its discard pile.
• Further down lies the Cotton Demand Track for the Distant Markets.
• Running along the perimeter is a dual-purpose track used to track player income levels as well as accumulated victory points. Each space displays a pound sterling value (at the top of the space), indicating income, along with a victory point value (inside the space). The latter increases sequentially by one point per space from the very beginning, whereas the former does not. Note that the spaces are clustered into color bands, which becomes essential when taking loans.
• In the upper right corner are the Coal and Iron Demand Tracks, featuring a sequence of spaces with associated costs in pounds.
• Just to their left sits a quick-reference chart detailing the construction costs for canals and rail connections.

Throughout the game, players will build various industries across the different cities. The industries permitted in any given city are limited in both quantity and type. There are five types of industries: Cotton Mills, Ports, Coal Mines, Iron Works, and Shipyards. These industries are represented by small, double-sided tiles showing the following details:

• On the front side (an unbuilt or unflipped building with a solid background matching the player’s color):
  • The center displays an illustration of the industry.
  • The bottom-right corner, on Iron Works and Coal Mines, shows the units of coal or iron produced.
  • The top-left corner shows a number representing the technological level of the industry, ranging from 1 to 4.
  • Additionally, some tiles feature a crossed-out circle symbol indicating they cannot be built (these show no tech level).
• On the reverse side (a flipped, active building with a split background, half black and half player color):
  • The bottom-right corner shows an upward arrow indicating the income increase granted by the tile.
  • The bottom-left corner features a black hexagon showing the victory point value awarded by the tile.
  • The top-left corner again displays the technological level of the industry.
  • The top-right corner depicts connection icons that provide victory points to adjacent rail links.

These industries depict businesses striving to reach peak operational efficiency. When built, tiles are placed face up, and upon satisfying the specific conditions for their type, they flip over. At that point, they grant benefits to their owner (an immediate boost to player income, and victory points awarded at the end of the corresponding era). Here is how each industry type operates:

• Cotton Mill: flipped via a Sell Cotton action, selling either to a Port (owned by any player) or to the Distant Market. Once sold, the tile flips.
• Port: activated, like cotton mills, via a Sell Cotton action; however, ports strictly require a cotton mill (belonging to any player) to supply the goods and trigger the flip. The owner of the cotton mill chooses which port to use.
• Coal Mine: supplies a specified quantity of coal cubes placed onto the tile. These remain until consumed by other industries or sold to the coal demand track (which requires a transport link connecting the mine to a port). The tile flips only when the final cube is removed.
• Iron Works: like the Coal Mine, it provides a specific number of iron cubes placed directly onto the tile. These cubes stay there until consumed by other industries or transferred to the iron demand track (requiring no transport connection). The tile flips once the last cube is removed.
• Shipyard: the only industry tile that flips immediately upon being built.

To organize industry tiles without constantly flipping them over to check what each yields when activated, each player has an individual player mat. Each industry type is arranged in columns holding unbuilt tiles face up (allowing players to see what they produce when placed and what they need to flip). Flanking each space is the information found on the flipped side of each tile. Every industry type features multiple technological levels; players cannot build a tile without having cleared all prior-level tiles of that type from their mat. In addition, certain tiles can only be constructed during the first era of the game, indicated by a blue semicircle icon (Canal Era). To the left of each space is the construction cost (in money and resources), while to the right is the victory point value and income gain.

Players place these industry tiles into empty spaces in each city, which then become unavailable to other players (barring rare exceptions). That said, the owner may rebuild on their own space, provided the new industry is of the same type and a higher level.

We have mentioned them already, but it is worth clarifying how Distant Markets function. Across the board lie several locations with no industry spaces, though they can be linked via canals or railways. These locations serve two purposes: increasing the value of adjacent links and, in some cases, providing an export port to the Distant Markets. These foreign markets offer an alternative way to sell cotton according to the Cotton Demand Track on the board. This marker drops over the course of the game as players export cotton. To resolve this, Distant Market tiles are revealed showing two figures shaking hands on a deal and a number, which indicates how many spaces the marker advances down the track.

We have already touched on them, but we must discuss the two resources managed during play: coal and iron. Their primary purpose is facilitating the construction of other industries:

• Coal is required for Cotton Mills (level 2 and above), Iron Works, Shipyards, and rail links.
• Iron is required for Cotton Mills (level 3 and above), Coal Mines (level 3 and above), and Shipyards.

These resources are never stored directly in players’ personal supplies; instead, they are shared on the board and can be sourced from two places: built industries (regardless of owner) or the demand tracks on the board (at an escalating cost depending on remaining stock). An essential distinction exists between coal and iron when obtaining resources. Coal requires a connected route (canals or rail lines) between source and destination, and players must strictly draw from the closest available source (measuring the fewest connections between locations). Iron, however, requires no transport network whatsoever and can be pulled from anywhere on the map. One final key detail: the demand tracks for these resources are replenished whenever new mines (if connected to a port) or iron works are built, with cubes flowing directly and automatically from the tile to the corresponding track to generate cash.

The other major resource in the game is money, which is managed directly by each player. Cash is used to fund infrastructure and industries. There are only two ways to obtain money during the game: through income earned at the start of each round or by taking loans, which push our marker backward on the income track. If a player owes money at the start of a round (falling into negative income values) and lacks the cash to pay, they must remove industry tiles from the board to cover the deficit.

As noted earlier, the game unfolds across two distinct eras: the Canal Era and the Rail Era. The most crucial rule to bear in mind regarding these eras is that during the Canal Era, players may not place more than one industry tile per city. Furthermore, at the end of this era, any industry tiles on the board with a tech level below 2 are removed, alongside all canal links. Removing them from the board does not remove them from player mats, however, so unbuilt level-one tiles must still be cleared via development to unlock advanced tiles of that type.

Another paramount concept is the network of links between board locations. Depending on the current era, players will establish links using canals or railway lines. These connections serve two main functions: allowing the transport of elements between locations (moving coal or selling cotton) and enabling players to build using industry cards in any city reached by their own connected network. In this new edition, the intrinsic link between Liverpool and Birkenhead has been removed; previously, it allowed construction during both eras without links (though it could not transport coal or sell cotton). Now, an actual link must be built just like anywhere else.

While industries are the backbone of a player’s engine, the actual driving force of the game is the hand of cards available each round to execute actions. The bottom right corner indicates whether a card is used in 2-, 3-, or 4-player games. Cards come in two varieties:

• Location Cards: specify a particular city without naming an industry type. Available building slots are dictated by the empty spaces on the board in that city. The card shows an outline of Lancashire with a red indicator pinpointing the city.
• Industry Cards: specify an industry type without naming a location. This allows you to build that industry type in any city, provided your existing transport network connects to it. The top-left corner shows the matching industry icon, framed by artwork reflecting that industry.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Place the main board on the table, showing the side corresponding to the player count.
2. Prepare the card deck tailored to the player count and shuffle it.
3. Draw one card from the deck without revealing it and place it beneath the deck tile, locomotive side up, on the deck space of the board. Place the remaining deck on top of the tile.
4. Place one black cube and one orange cube on each space of the coal and iron demand tracks.
5. Shuffle the Distant Market tiles and place them on their board space.
6. Form a general supply with the money tokens, distributing £30 to each player.
7. Each player receives all industry tiles and canal/rail link tokens of their color, placing the industry tiles face up on their player mat.
8. All players position their markers: the income marker on the 0 space (which shows 10 victory points) and the victory point marker on the 0 space.
9. The remaining marker is used to determine the initial turn order, chosen at random.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Brass: Lancashire spans two eras. Each era plays out over a fixed number of rounds until all cards have been exhausted, at which point an era transition takes place.

In each action round, players take turns in turn order, performing 2 actions (with the exception of the very first round of the game, where players take only 1 action). The available actions are:

• Build Industry. The player discards a matching location card (showing an open slot for that industry) or an industry card (if connected to that city), or overbuilds an existing lower-level tile, placing the lowest-level available tile from their mat face up. The construction cost is placed in the player’s spending area on the turn order track. If coal is required, it must come from the nearest connected mine or, failing that, from the market (if the location connects to an open port). Buying from the market increases the build cost based on the current coal price (taking the cheapest cube). Iron works similarly, though it requires no physical connection and can be drawn from any iron works on the board. When an iron works or mine is emptied, it flips, increasing that owner’s income.
• Build Canal/Rail Link. The player discards any card (its face value is irrelevant) and places a link token on an unoccupied route. In the Canal Era, a player can build a single canal per action for £3. In the Rail Era, a player may build one link for £5, or two links for £15 and one coal cube (which must be accessible from one of the connected cities). The player must own an industry tile in one of the connected cities or have reached one via an existing link.
• Develop Industry. This action allows players to discard one or two industry tiles from their player mat (they do not need to be the same type). Developing an industry (discarding a tile) requires one iron cube, taken from an iron works on the board or purchased from the iron demand track. If bought from the track, the cost is placed in the player’s spending space.
• Sell Cotton. The player sells cotton, flipping built Cotton Mill tiles. The following conditions must be met:
  • Selling cotton requires a route connecting the cotton mill to a Port (either a built player port or an export port to the Distant Market).
  • If sold through a player-owned port (which does not have to belong to the active player), both tiles are flipped.
  • If selling to the Distant Market, draw the top Distant Market tile. The Cotton Demand marker moves down by the value shown on that tile. As long as the track is not exhausted, the sale succeeds: the cotton mill flips, and the player gains income corresponding to the reached space. If the market bottoms out, the sale fails, the tile stays unflipped, and no further sales to the Distant Market are permitted for the rest of the era.
• Take a Loan. Any card may be discarded for this action. A player can borrow in increments of £10 up to £30 (i.e., £10, £20, or £30). For every £10 borrowed, the player’s income marker drops one full color band on the track. Note that during the Rail Era, players may no longer take loans once the draw deck has run out.

At the end of each round, a brief upkeep phase takes place:

• Income: each player collects or pays coins according to the current value of their space on the income track. If a player cannot cover a negative balance, they must remove industry tiles from the board, gaining cash equal to half the construction cost rounded down. This may force a player to remove multiple tiles.
• Refill Hands: while cards remain in the deck, players draw back up to a full hand of 8 cards.
• Turn Order: rearrange turn order markers based on the amount of money spent this round, ordered from lowest spender to highest.

A new round then begins.

An era concludes when the draw deck is empty and all players have exhausted the cards in their hands. Scoring and transition proceed as follows:

Scoring:

• Each player scores victory points for all flipped industry tiles of their color on the board.
• Each player scores points equal to the link icons on all flipped tiles located in the cities connected by their links (regardless of tile ownership).

Era Transition (Canal Era only):

• Remove all level-one industry tiles from the board and return them to the box (unbuilt level-one tiles on player mats remain).
• Return all canal link tokens to their owners’ supplies.
• Shuffle the deck, set aside 2 cards per player facedown beneath the deck tile, and deal 8 cards to each player.

Play then proceeds into the Rail Era.

Game End

The game concludes following the end-of-era scoring of the Rail Era. Players then score 1 victory point for every £10 in cash remaining. The player with the most victory points wins. In case of a tie, the following tiebreakers apply:

• The highest income level.
• The greatest amount of cash remaining.

If still tied, the players share the victory.

Personal Opinion

Today we review a design that has rightfully earned its spot in the Board Game Pantheon. Spending years near the summit of the BGG rankings proves as much, even if the rise of hits like Caverna (read its tocho-review here), Terra Mystica (read its tocho-review here), and Imperial Assault has pushed it down a few spots over time. Many consider this to be Martin Wallace’s masterpiece. Does it live up to the hype? Let’s take a look.

First, let’s make one thing clear: this is one of those quintessential economic games that the British designer crafts so masterfully. That alone tends to turn some players away, reluctant to sit down for an evening of relentless mental arithmetic. With Brass: Lancashire, you sit down to turn a profit by building infrastructure and bringing it to full capacity. That means taking on debt, embracing risk, and ultimately winning or losing. Just like real life.

Brass: Lancashire is deceptive. Once you know how to play, the conceptual load feels modest because turns are fairly straightforward. However, introduce it to a newcomer, and they will likely feel overwhelmed. The rulebook is packed with subtle nuances and exceptions that must be juggled constantly to build effectively and avoid disastrous missteps. The learning curve is steep, not because the individual rules are inherently difficult, but because holding all those moving parts in your head simultaneously takes practice. Once everything clicks, though, you realize what an absolute marvel you have in front of you.

In my view, its brilliance lies in the balance between tactical opportunism and strategic foresight. The tactical layer comes from two elements: first, the card hand driving every move. You cannot simply build wherever you fancy; you must adapt to what your cards dictate. Second, player interaction keeps everyone on edge. Holding the right cards for your dream move does not guarantee the board state will still allow it once your turn rolls around, as opponents frequently beat you to the punch.

At the same time, the strategic depth is immense. Anything you hope to pull off requires planning and several preparatory steps to bring things safely into port (pun fully intended). If you want to sell cotton, you need a mill connected to an available port or foreign export route. Setting up that infrastructure demands capital (which remains tight throughout) and the cards to execute it. Every action operates this way. A match naturally breaks down into mini-objectives where players strive to hit operational milestones with the fewest actions and lowest costs possible. Some goals are ambitious, such as shipyards, while others are modest. Either way, long-term foresight is non-negotiable.

Circling back to the financial aspect, while Brass: Lancashire is certainly an economic game, it never feels like a spreadsheet exercise requiring a calculator at your side. Options on your turn are crisp and carry transparent price tags. You will not find auctions or fluctuating variables here; you can anticipate your costs well in advance.

Because costs are fixed, overthinking down to the last penny yields diminishing returns. Infrastructure and resources have set prices, and you have whatever cash is on hand. That is all there is to it. You might weigh spending a little extra to manipulate turn order or plan future income versus taking a loan, but that calculation rarely bogs down the pace like the auctions in Tinners’ Trail (read its tocho-review here) or Power Grid (read its tocho-review here). In Brass, you either have the cash or you take a loan. Those timid about math-heavy economic games need not fear!

Timing is everything here, constrained only by the flexibility of your hand. Board positioning is nothing short of masterclass design. Knowing when to reveal your hand and drop rail links onto critical paths is vital to prevent opponents from cutting off your expansion. You must time every placement meticulously, staking out claims on the map without tipping your hand regarding medium-term goals.

Another outstanding strength of Wallace’s design is its ruthless player interaction. Every mistake you make will be ruthlessly exploited by your rivals. Novices often make moves hoping the board will remain favorable until their next turn, only for reality to hand them a brutal wake-up call of blocked paths and stolen resources. Brass can be merciless; positioning properly and avoiding getting boxed in is essential if you want to avoid spending several turns undoing your own blunders.

This brings me to another inspired design choice: the split eras. Beyond offering immense thematic flavor, each era gives its half of the match a unique tempo. During the Canal Era, decisions are somewhat forgiving, as players focus primarily on establishing an initial footprint and building financial momentum. Once the Rail Era hits, however, every move must be razor-sharp, as a single blunder can ruin your entire endgame.

All of this might sound straightforward on paper, but sitting at the table is a different story. The choices available are perpetually tempting, and obvious plays are rare unless an opponent leaves an open goal. Players are pushed to set realistic goals across two- or three-turn horizons. Scattering your attention across unfocused projects is a recipe for disaster, and the risk of running into a dead end skyrockets.

As if the ambient tension were not enough, Wallace chose to hold all scoring until the conclusion of each era. While you could technically track score differentials during play, doing so by hand would ruin the suspense of moving markers down the track. Analytical players must resist the urge to calculate points constantly, as Analysis Paralysis lurks around every corner. Even then, reading the state of play at a glance is anything but simple.

Regarding era scoring, remember that level-two and higher industries built during the Canal Era score twice—once per era—unless cleared from the board. This rewarding cumulative scoring mechanism was later perfected in one of my all-time favorites, Russian Railroads (read its tocho-review here).

The sense of progression is another huge highlight. Starting from scratch, you watch your industrial footprint swell across the county as your factories roar to life. It delivers a deeply satisfying arc, achieving in a modest turn count what many heavy games fail to do over hours.

We cannot overlook the supply-and-demand mechanics, which represent one of the game’s best interactive features. Whether you look at the resource tracks driving link building and development, or the fluctuating cotton prices on the foreign export market, banking on the board staying unchanged across a single round is pure wishful thinking.

Wallace’s thematic integration also deserves praise. The British designer typically starts with a historical canvas and crafts systems around it. Here, he captures the monumental upheaval brought by the steam engine and the logistical transition from sluggish canals to bustling railways. Granted, a few quirks raise thematic eyebrows. The arbitrary distinction between coal and iron is puzzling: coal requires physical transport networks to traverse the board, while iron seemingly teleports anywhere without friction. Perhaps a historical expert can enlighten us there.

The rule barring players from building more than one industry per city during the Canal Era also feels slightly artificial from a purely thematic angle—after all, capital goes where it pleases. Mechanically, though, the restriction is completely justified; unrestricted placement would let aggressive openings lock out opponents from turn one, draining the game of its delicious, ongoing friction. One could also question why industries flip when emptied, appearing spent. While literally true for mines, for mills and shipyards this serves as a neat abstraction showing that the business has reached peak operational capacity.

Ultimately, Brass: Lancashire belongs to that exclusive club of mechanically approachable yet notoriously difficult-to-master masterpieces, alongside titans like Tigris & Euphrates. Games of this pedigree reward table experience far more than rule memorization. Inevitably, newcomers will take a beating in their first few sessions. Weathering that initiation is the only gateway to appreciating a gem of this caliber. It may not appeal to casual crowds, but for those who invest the time, it delivers unforgettable matches.

One minor drawback is player scaling. For my money, the full experience shines brightest with a full table of four. It plays decently at three, but loses some punch. The two-player variant suffers a similar fate: while handy for learning the ropes, it lacks the cutthroat density of a four-player showdown. Offsetting this, the game offers tremendous replay value. Thanks to card distributions and player agency, no two games unfold alike. There is boundless depth to explore.

Turning to the production, Roxley has delivered a top-tier product. The cardboard punches out cleanly with satisfying heft. The cards are exceptional, sporting great core weight, a tactile linen finish, and resilient snap (though given how much they are handled, sleeving is recommended). The wooden bits are fairly standard—a bit light, but entirely serviceable. The rulebook is laid out wonderfully, even if a couple of edge cases take some digging to find. Compared to the old Eagle edition, this release incorporates the dedicated player mats introduced in Age of Industry, doing away with the need to print player aids at home.

Visually, the upgrade is striking. During crowdfunding, there was concern regarding the moody color palette of the board (even on the day side), given that Brass demands total legibility. While the map features ornate flourishes, these quickly fade into the background during play, leaving player pieces readable. Stronger contrast between certain player colors would have been welcome, but these modern editions look vastly more appealing than the spartan maps Peter Dennis illustrated years ago. The cards look gorgeous and the box cover art is breathtaking.

And let’s wrap this up. Brass: Lancashire is a colossal achievement built on hand management, network construction, and capital investment across a shared board. Its genius stems from balancing medium-term strategic planning against rapid tactical pivots driven by card play. The interaction is ruthless, punishing mistakes while demanding tight timing and sharp map positioning. Watching your industrial engine take shape while riding shifting market forces is deeply rewarding, enhanced by the distinct personalities of its two eras. On the flip side, subtle rules exceptions present a steep entry barrier for newcomers, alongside the ever-present threat of analysis paralysis for calculation-prone players. Once those hurdles are cleared, it delivers peerless tension and brilliance. A cutthroat, indispensable classic that borders on board gaming perfection. For all these reasons, I give it a…