Brass on Wednesday 20 July 2011

We played another game of Brass on Wednesday, this time with Jarratt. We discussed the King Cotton and port strategies and Jarratt decided to try a port strategy. He mostly built ports and "burnt" stuff in his first few turns, while I concentrated on "burning" and then building cotton mills. I was so fixated on cotton that I missed an extremely obvious ironworks (which Jarratt then built), this wasn't the only ironworks opportunity I missed. Anne built ironworks (all 4 by the end of the game) coal mines (she had run out well before the end of the game) and shipyards (3 by the end of the game) with a few cotton mills and ports.

Jarratt's early ports had little affect on Anne or I in the canal phase and at the beginning of the rail phase I built 2 ports in Liverpool as a safety measure. We decided that a port strategy should be opportunistic in the canal phase (remember you can't build more than one building per town in that phase) and more determined in the rail phase. Anne's coal mines worked well to fund her shipyard building. Jarratt, at the other extreme, built no coal mines at all and lagged on the income track.

At the end of the rail phase I wanted to build 2 mills and 2 ports but didn't have the right cards for the 2 mills so built a shipyard in Barrow and Furness instead (and an opportunistic port which no-one flipped :-( ). In the end Jarratt's cotton mills were more valuable than mine, his port strategy had morphed into a King Cotton strategy. Both Anne and I had over forty pounds left at the end of the game which means that we failed to build enough rail (even though coal cost £5 by then it was still cost effective to spend £25 on two rail rather than £10 on one rail).

Anne's score of 181 would probably have been a winning score two years ago, and my score of 194 was possibly the best score I have seen except for Jarratt's winning score of 218!

Jarratt 218
Ian     194
Anne    181

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.