They have different priorities, but run on the same system and stress the same skills. I see them as different scenarios rather than two different titles.
Still, I’m not sure the games compete against each other that much. The same goes for loans, which are swept away from you if you aren’t paying attention. Realizing you have no real moves left is not fun, even if it promotes more careful card play and not wasting a single action. It’s still possible to get a huge lead over our opponents, but it doesn’t lock people out. I also like that Birgmingham is more forgiving. I think drawing a broader strategy and trying to shift from one industry to another is more interesting than fighting over a contested space. While I appreciate the tightness of the original, I find the sequel more fun. SCENARIOSĪs one might suspect, I favour Birmingham over Lancashire. It’s less reliant on your opponents, but you never get locked out or lack any decent moves. Still, play remains tense because some industries are more efficient. There are more paths to explore, from heavy cotton to cooperative brewery and iron strategies. Railroads now require beer a scarce resource and the new industries create a more open game. The wild cards are better implemented and overall, the game feels competitive without being limiting. Cash in hand no longer contributes to your score, allowing loans to be taken at all times. The distant market is replaced by merchant tiles which add variety without featuring any random factors. I like Lancanshire‘s tightness but not its limitations.īirmingham improves on all these aspects. They also made Level I Cotton Mills slightly better to try make them playable. They did away with the Birkenhead “virtual link”, partly because it’s confusing and partly because it saw use in approximately 0% of matches. Roxley did revise some details for its new edition. It’s all about juggling resources and taking advantage of opposing moves. Combining ports and cotton is not very desirable and their level I tiles are a trap in the vast majority of circumstances.
So much that they centralize the second era around them. Railroads are extremely strong in Brass Lancashire. There are far fewer paths to victory than it seems at first. But the main issue with the game is its narrow strategic space. The randomness of the distant market, the weak “wild card” action and the sudden limit on asking loans are a good example of it. There are a couple wonky mechanisms in the original. Lancashire suffers from this trend and to a larger degree than Birmingham. The flawed draw mechanism of Liberté and the broken “Halifax Hammer” strategy in A Few Acres of Snow come to mind. Many of his games suffer from a rather poor finish. Martin Wallace is one of my favourite designers, but development is not his forte. Card play is less punishing but where to lead with your moves is harder to see. Ideally, you’ll use your own resources and exploit openings left by the rest. There’s more money in the game and the spaces on the board are more flexible. While fiercely competitive, it’s more focused on creating opportunities for yourself. The right strategy isn’t hard to see, what’s difficult is executing it.īirmingham has an easier flow. Using each other’s ports and iron can be much more beneficial than doing it yourself. The industries are few and the tight spacing forces players to cooperate. Lancashire is more competitive and single-minded. These differences give them a different feel. This results in a larger array of viable strategies and more variety in play. With more industries, there are also more options to work with. This creates a kinder game where it’s difficult to get locked out. While losing a valuable spot is painful, it translates into a loss of efficiency, not a loss of actions. Like most newer titles, Birmingham gives us more options. On the other hand, I’ve also found myself locked out of useful moves by the end of the game. Competition is very strong, to the point you may lose because someone took the spot you needed. I always get the feeling there’s room for one less player than there is at the table. Lancashire has the tightness of older eurogames. Simple, but deep games like Knizia’s Samurai gave way to heavier titles such as Tzolk’in and Kanban. As hobbyists became more experienced, elegance became a less important factor.
In that time, the reigning culture of game design changed. But it also opened the question: Which one is best? And why?Įleven years passed between the release of Lancashire and Birmingham. This was great news for fans of economic games, as Wallace’s game of the industrial revolution is highly regarded. In 2019 Roxley not only released Brass Birmingham, but also reprinted the original under the name of Brass Lancashire.
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