| Subject Name: | Brass |
| Designer: | Martin Wallace |
| Illustrator: | Peter Dennis, Eckhard Freytag (Peagus Speile edition) |
| Publisher: | Warfrog Games (UK) Pegasus Spiele (Germany) FRED Distribution (U.S.) Eagle Games (U.S.) White Goblin Games (France, Benelux) Wargames Club Publishing (China) |
| Players: | 2 to 4 |
| Ages: | 13 years and up |
| Setup Time: | approx. 5 minutes |
| Playing Time: | 120 minutes |
| Random Chance: | Medium-low |
| Skills: | Resource management, Planning, Economics |
| Date: | 2007 |
Brass is a board game set in Lancashire, England during the Industrial Revolution. It was developed by Martin Wallace. The goal of the game is accrue the most victory points by building mines, cotton factories, ports, canals and rail links, and establishing trade routes. The game is divided into two historical periods: the canal period and the rail period. Victory points are scored at the end of each.
The game supports 2-4 players, with a playing time of 1-2 hours. The games suggested age range is 14 and up.[1] Brass was followed by Age of Industry, which is basically a simplified (no canals), shorter (2 hours) and more accessible (minimum 2 players instead of 3) version of Brass.
The game was published in 2007 by Warfrog (now Treefrog) Games, Wallace's publishing company. It was later published by Pegasus Spiele as Kohle - Mit Volldampf zum Reichtum ('Coal - Full Steam Ahead to Riches') with additional artwork by Eckhard Freytag, and under its original name by Eagle Games and FRED Distribution (USA), White Goblin Games (France) and Wargames Club Publishing (China)
In 2017 Canadian publisher Roxley Games launched a Kickstarter campaign to realize a reprinting of the game under the new name Brass: Lancashire with new artwork and components as well as slightly modified rules.[2] At the same time the successor, Brass: Birmingham, was introduced, adding Gavan Brown and Matt Tolman to the design team and featuring new mechanisms while keeping the same core rule-set. The campaign succeeded reaching 1.7m CAD given only 80.000 CAD was pledged and both games hit retail in 2018.
In February 2023, Brass: Birmingham reached the spot as the top rated board game on leading website BoardGameGeek.[3]