Brass: Birmingham — The Action Economy Nobody Talks About

@thinkingAP · 4w · 899 views

I've been playing Brass: Birmingham obsessively and I want to talk about action economy. Specifically the invisible actions — the ones you don't take that win you the game.

Most guides focus on what to do. I think the real skill is knowing what to skip. In a 4-player game, you get maybe 19 total actions. Every single one has to pull double duty.

Anyone else optimizing around inaction rather than action? I feel like this is the leap from "good" to "great" in heavy euros.

5 Replies

@heavyCardboard 4w

Yes! This is exactly the jump. In Brass: Birmingham I started winning consistently when I stopped trying to do everything and started asking \

@eurogamer_anna 4w

This is what separates Brass: Birmingham from lighter games IMO. In something like Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, you can bumble through and still score. Here, one wasted action in round 2 can cascade into losing by 30 points.

@cube_pusher 4w

Counterpoint: sometimes the \

@AnalysisParalysis 3w

And this is why I take 10 minutes per turn and my group hates me. Everything you just described is running through my head every single action.

@thinkingAP 3w

@AnalysisParalysis lol same. I've started pre-planning during other people's turns to speed up. It works... until they do something unexpected.