Friday 12 March 2010 (King Cotton rules)

Brass

Nigel and Anne suggested playing Brass which was one of the games I had already put on the table. Anne declared she wanted to get away with building no level 1 buildings, while I wondered if I could get a chance of improving on my Cotton King strategy.

Nigel started with development for £2. I followed with development (burning two level 1 cotton mills) for £4. Anne decided that £6 was too expensive and took a £30 loan instead, which put her first for the next turn. But iron was still £3 so she built a coal mine in Wigan and a canal for £8. Nigel did the same in Manchester. Ideally I would have liked to take advantage of Nigel's coal mine by playing a Manchester card or an Iron card to build an iron works in Manchester and then burn another couple of cotton mills, but I didn't have the right card. So I did the next best thing I used two cards as the card I didn't have to build an Iron Works for £5, putting me in first place for the third turn and giving me access to the cheap Iron for more development (burning two more cotton mills).

I then switched to building mills and shipping cotton. I used the external market to ship from my first three mills and luckily for me there were 3 un-flipped ports for me to ship to from my fourth and fifth mills. So I used one of Nigel's and one of Anne's. Nigel finished the canal phase with an un-flipped level 2 mill which was still un-flipped at the end of the game.

Going into the rail phase I still had my level one coal mine. The rail phase didn't go so smoothly as there was a shortage of building spaces and resources were expensive but eventually I managed to get down two more mills. Towards the end of the game I wondered if it would be better to switch tack and build a ship building yard in Liverpool rather than build my last cotton mill, but the cost in iron was too much. So I built my final mill and a port and shipped cotton and used my last two cards and £35 to build three bits of track. Nigel used his last two cards the same way.

Nigel's track was worth more than mine but my eight cotton mills and other odds and ends were worth 93 points.

Ian   190
Nigel 167
Anne  161

Nigel complained that it was a hard game, but then Brass always is hard. Anne said that starting third ruined her game. I think it would be possible to score 200 in a three player game -- though you might need a bit of luck and non-obstructive opponents.