Actions

Build, connect, develop, sell, borrow, and scout in Brass: Birmingham.

Build

Discard a card that matches the build. A Location card names the city and can be used whether or not it is in your network, except that Farm Breweries require a Brewery Industry card or Wild Industry card. An Industry card shows an industry and can be used in a location in your network. If you have no Industry or Link tiles on the board, you may build an Industry tile with a matching Industry card anywhere it fits, or place a Link tile anywhere with any card.

Take the lowest-level remaining tile of that industry from your Player Mat and put it black-top side down on an undeveloped matching space. If a space showing only that industry’s symbol is open, use it before a shared space. If no matching undeveloped space remains, you cannot build there. Pay the tile’s money cost and consume any printed iron or coal cost. If coal is required, the build location must be connected to its source after placing the tile. See coal and iron.

If the tile produces coal or iron, take the cubes printed on it from the General Supply. A Coal Mine connected to any Merchant space immediately sends as many of its cubes as possible to the Coal Market. An Iron Works always does the same with iron. Fill the most expensive open market spaces first; collect the money shown for each cube. If the last cube leaves the tile this way, flip it and raise your income.

Breweries receive one beer barrel when built in the Canal Era and two in the Rail Era. Other industries do not receive resource cubes when built.

During Canal Era, each player may build at most one Industry tile in a location; different players may each have one there. During Rail Era, you may build multiple Industry tiles in a location. In either era, a tile with the era symbol on its Player Mat cannot be built in that era. The level 1 Pottery is an exception: it can be built in the Rail Era.

Overbuilding

Overbuilding uses the normal Build action, card, costs, and lowest-level tile available on your Player Mat. The new tile must be a higher level of the same industry as the one it replaces.

• You may overbuild any of your own Industry tiles. Return resources on that tile to the General Supply.
• You may overbuild an opponent’s Coal Mine or Iron Works only if no cubes of that resource remain anywhere on the board, including in its Market.
• An overbuilt tile is removed from the game and scores no VPs. Its former owner keeps income and VPs earned earlier.

Network

Discard a card, then place Link tiles on undeveloped lines adjacent to your network. During Canal Era, place one canal link for £3. During Rail Era, place one rail link for £5, or two rail links for £15 and one beer. The beer for two rails must come from a Brewery, not a Merchant. Pay the cost onto your Character tile for turn-order purposes.

Each rail link also consumes one coal. Place the links one at a time, and check coal access after each is placed. The second link does not have to continue from the first, but each must be a legal placement from your network and have its own coal. See Network and connections and coal.

Develop

Discard a card and remove one or two lowest-level Industry tiles from your Player Mat. Each tile is removed separately, and the two tiles may be different industries. Pay one iron per tile. This opens access to higher-level tiles; it does not affect tiles already on the board.

Pottery tiles marked with the lightbulb cannot be removed by Develop. Build them to uncover the higher-level Pottery tiles.

Sell

Discard a card. Flip one or more of your unflipped Cotton Mills, Manufacturers, or Potteries. For each tile, sell to a connected Merchant whose tile shows that industry. Consume the beer printed on the Industry tile; each tile’s requirement is paid separately. Beer may come from your own unflipped Breweries without a connection, connected opponents’ unflipped Breweries, or the beer beside the Merchant you are selling to.

When you consume that Merchant’s beer, take its printed bonus as well. The Merchant beer can only be used while selling to that same Merchant. Beer and Merchant bonuses.

Flip each sold tile and advance your Income marker by the number of spaces printed at its lower right. Your income level cannot rise above 30. The tile’s VPs are scored later, at era end.

Loan

Discard a card, take £30 from the Bank, then move your Income marker back three income levels (not three spaces). Place it on the highest space of the new level. You cannot take a loan if it would put you below income level −10. Loans are not repaid.

Scout

See Scout and Wild cards: discard three cards in total, then take one Wild Location and one Wild Industry card. You cannot take this action while you hold a Wild card.