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News from the North: Brass (Martin Wallace and the boys from Warfrog)
It has been a busy winter on the performance front for Phil’s wife, but – lo and behold! – there is a gap in her schedule, so it’s off to Hipperholme for an evening in the company of Roger, Ian and Dave. And by a quirk of fate, 48 hours after the Southern Ragnars get their teeth into Brass, it is the turn of the north.
Truth to tell Phil has had the game for the past fortnight but only now is it getting exposure to real life players. That is not to say that it hasn’t been played; it has – three times – solo – and every time Phil has got an important rule wrong. That’s the trouble with Brass – the level of complexity has a not dissimilar feel to some of the Ragnar’s offerings – particularly Canal Mania and Monastery. It’s not a complex game in terms of mechanisms, but every rule seems to mesh with lots of other rules. You have to understand the whole thing, not just each of the bits that make up the whole. Phil’s troubles have involved i) a major misunderstanding of the sequence of play ii) not spending iron cubes when developing iii) not remembering the coal and iron demand tracks iv) not moving back a segment for each £10 loan. Maybe it’s old age, but this is a very intricate bit of design work (Swiss watch country). Get one rule slightly wrong and a whole lot of other things fall apart.
Phil has learnt from his travails, and arrives at Roger’s clutching a handful of play summary sheets of his own devising. The rule explanation session does not take an inordinate amount of time, but it’s important that everything is covered – it would be nice to ensure a return outing. And the summary sheets do work – apart from Ian expressing surprise every time a multiple cotton selling takes place and Phil taking out the ‘six cards’ at the last possible minute, nothing else untoward disturbs the flow of the game.
And an interesting game it is too. It does take a while to play – somewhere around the three hour mark – but attention is focused throughout; indeed, the pace which the game seems to build up during the railway period catches everyone by surprise. Dave is to be heard urging players to slow down as there seems to be too many things happening at once.
In addition, like any good game, there seem to be several strategies open to the players.
Roger plays the canny, financially sound strategy. Not for him big loans – carefully prudent, he borrows probably less than £30 in the entire game. Canny investment into ports and shipbuilding gives him something of a monopoly along the coast, so much so that at the midpoint, he is seen as the one to beat. But although his two shipyards bring in massive points, he has had to spend a long time saving up for them. His view: he should have bought into railways, but isn’t convinced by the ‘heavy borrowing’ strategy.
Dave and Ian plough a similar furrow: the instant that railways become available, they scatter them like manic George Hudsons (famous Yorkshire railway entrepreneur – Ed) in all directions. Manchester and Liverpool will obviously earn big, so within two turns there isn’t space to swing a cat in South Lancashire, let alone a 4-6-2 Great Western class locomotive. A steady stream of coal mines keeps the money pouring in, and by the end they have overtaken Roger’s moneymaking juggernaut.
Phil borrows money like there’s no tomorrow and spends the entire game way back on the revenue track. Cotton mills are the way to go (or they have to be, based on the selection of cards he continues to pick up). Lots of development of said mills, plus reluctance on the part of the other players to sell to distant markets allows Phil to get two of the high scoring mills onto the board. That, coupled with a few early railway lines, is just enough to win the game.
Opinion is slightly divided at the end. Phil is mainly relieved that the game played out successfully – those rules are a swine to get across to other people. Dave enjoyed it, Ian wasn’t too dismissive of it despite coming in last (more dreadful card combinations seemed to be his reason for his failings), Roger was less convinced. Play balance issues worry him – is heavy borrowing the only financial strategy? Are you making things hard for yourself by not slapping railways on in all directions? Is shipbuilding a poor option? And most importantly, will he want to play it again??? (I think so- Ed.)
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Games-night 27th March…… ‘Brass’ by Martin Wallace
After much soul-searching, Dicken made his first trip to Essen (this was back in the Autumn). To his surprise, he thoroughly enjoyed the experience not least because he met some jolly nice people. Peter Champion is one such and over the past few months Kendall and Dicken have enjoyed gaming and warm hospitality at Peter’s home in Esher.
After a suave ‘Bon Soir’, pleasantries continue in English. Player numbers have reduced to three; probably for the best as ‘Brass’ is a game that Dicken and Kendall are keen to learn rather than be too competitive about. Rumour and reviews have it that ‘Brass’ is not a game mastered on first playing. This quickly proves to be true.
The game is already set-up and copies of Derek Carver’s rules summary are available to each player. Peter gives a précis of the rules, then goes through Derek’s summary and then gives a resume – that old teacher 3 point trick; not that Peter is a teacher or old. Lots are drawn and it’s Peter to go first.
Those interested in the comestibles side of gaming may be interested in Peter’s nibble preference. Tonight it is Bombay mix and it goes very well with John Smiths and Guinness – Dicken, the designated driver is on water, filtered though.
Peter plays a card and builds a cotton factory. He plays another card and builds a coal mine. He then builds two canals. This costs him a small fortune and he is all set to take out a loan. Dicken and Kendall reach for the rules. Something seems amiss, but Peter insists this is how he is used to playing the game. Further interrogation reveals Peter has only played the game once, so more rule scrutiny ensues.
The Ragnars are not normally so pedantic on a player’s first turn (pedantry tends to increase in inverse proportion to the chances of victory). Further rumours and reviews have it that the rules for ‘Brass’ are not entirely clear and anxiety is beginning to mount. As it happens, the rules at this point are very comprehensible and Peter has been getting himself into a bit of a ‘kaboodle’.
What Peter could do is …. play a card and build a cotton factory. Or …. play a card and build a coal mine. Or …. play a card and build a canal. Or …. play a card and take a loan. There are several other actions he could do, each of which is preceded by playing a card. Or …. he could simply discard and do no action. In each turn a player will play two cards and can do two actions. Except… the first and last turns, when players get to do just one of each.
Peter starts again and plays a card and builds a cotton factory. He is convinced that the game is now being played wrongly and that there won’t be time to do everything that needs doing. However, ‘rules is rules’ and what is on offer here feels very much more like Martin Wallace territory.
Despite a sense of relief in getting the game on an even keel, neither Dicken nor Kendall have any idea what they are doing. This is evident when Kendall decides to build an iron foundry. Peter kindly points out that there is very little point in doing this just yet. He doesn’t mention the same to Dicken when he builds a coal mine; but there is perhaps more to recommend this action – (ed. on reflection there is not really anything to recommend this action so early and Dicken has effectively wasted his first go. The poor little maroon).
Kendall gradually builds a canal system through to Yorkshire, thus connecting one or two mills to ports in Liverpool. Dicken is somewhat less ambitious canal-wise, but gradually builds some impressive ‘tech 2’ industries near Blackpool and Southport; hmmm! A later discovery is that Martin Wallace has written some game-play notes, amongst which is the advice to build ‘as near Manchester as possible’. Peter’s network is therefore handily situated – but then he is used to playing the game.
There’s plenty of opportunity for broad northern accents and cloth-cap humour. However, noses are now pressed firmly against the grind-stone of decision making. This is a game where it pays to keep concentrating and keep sober.
Instances of Mulligans and back-peddling mount. Unfortunately no-one notices Kendall’s error in building two ports in Liverpool … until too late. Peter misses an opportunity and Kendall forfeits the port; does this benefit Dicken? It matters not, because at the end of the canal era, Dicken has not got his tech 2s functioning and he trails badly in the victory point tally. Peter, heads the field.
The railway era begins. Money pours into Peter’s coffers, Dicken bemoans a string of poor card draws and takes to ship-building, Kendall goes on the offensive against Peter’s low-tech industries. The second victory point tally sees Dicken reach 99, Kendall 100 and Peter 107. Experience triumphs. However, after Kendall mulls over the game with his brother, ‘our Phil’, who has played ‘Brass’ solo three times (ed. there’s dedication) it is apparent that Kendall’s attacks on Peter’s holdings by ‘overbuilding’, were totally illegal and Kendall should have been soundly beaten for his audacity in even thinking that this was a suitable tactic. So, Peter’s winning margin would have been even bigger but then Dicken and Kendall were not really trying to win on this first outing (ed. oh yeah?).
11.15 and Georgina (Peter’s other half) has already wished everyone ‘Goodnight’. No time for the customary supper, which is always excellent – descriptions will no doubt appear in future games-night episodes. Peter produces his electronic diary and furiously punches in some details with one of those plastic pointer things. This enables him to calculate the date in three weeks – the power of modern technology. ‘Brass’ will be on the menu at that next meeting – this is a game with too much in it to garner all in one sitting – “we’ll be back”, ‘hasta la vista baby’.
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