That’s just 6 barrels of beer and half of them will likely go to our opponents. If we develop the first two and place the third and fourth in the canal era that only leaves us with three tiles for the rest of the game. It’s also important to note that each player only has access to seven brewery tiles. For example, covering the brewery near Worcester and Kidderminster will make it harder for the cotton mills in those locations to flip. After all, the double link value of breweries is a huge part of their appeal and you can’t build Farm breweries without linking them. Given the way the game works, those lost brewery spots are more likely to be in our networks than in our opponents. Less beer reduces the opportunities for profitable railroads and creates a lower-scoring game. Given how contested these locations can be and how a few of them will be covered by other industries, this has an important impact on the game. Placing level II tiles in the first era means fewer can be placed in the second. By developing away our level I breweries, we might also be reducing our access to it.Īfter all, there are only 11 brewery spots on the whole board. The amount of beer in the game is limited and heavily contested by all players. It enables the highest scoring plays like the double-rail action and is needed to flip most industries. BEERīeer is the most important resource in Brass Birmingham. Above all, I find this strategy fails to secure enough beer to reliably win the game. Like all strategies in Brass, every action opens new moves to our opponents. They are not going to win you more games than placing level I tiles would and they come with significant drawbacks. I’ve found the combination of these factors push the value of rushing level II breweries down.
At the beginning of the game, we may be better off using the beer from the merchant tiles than placing our own.
BRASS BIRMINGHAM CONSUMING BEER FREE
The efficiency of breweries goes down if they result in free beer for our opponents so they are a bit more of a combo piece than other industries. Second, a brewery requires another industry tile to flip. The latter need more development over the course of the game to be viable so we are limiting our options by not focusing on them. First, spending one action in developing breweries means we’ll have one less action to do the same with manufactured goods or cotton. More importantly, it’s not enough to blindy justify its drawbacks. So while it’s efficient, it’s not enough of an advantage to pursue it every game. In fact, the cold cash earned from newly placed iron works might prove more valuable than the two additional income steps of the brewery. The income gains might be smaller, but it’s not a huge difference. Both manufactured goods and iron works provide the same amount of points at level II than breweries do. However, it’s not that much better than the alternatives. It takes advantage of the raw efficiency of breweries and forces us to fight for them aggressively, both good things. Flipping a level II tile in the canal era nets us 10 points, a great deal considering their low cost and the income they provide.
The appeal of developing away the level I breweries is simple. By building those breweries, not only is it possible to secure more beer but also to obtain higher scores. As I got better at the game, I started taking a different approach. It’s such a solid move that it took me a while to realize it’s not actually that great. When I first started playing Brass Birmingham I always developed away my Level I Breweries.