A digital adaptation of the award-winning board game by Roxley Games. Build your industrial empire across the English Midlands during the height of the Industrial Revolution (1770-1870).
Note: This is an unofficial fan project. Brass: Birmingham is designed by Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman, and Martin Wallace, published by Roxley Games. Please support the original by purchasing the physical game.
Compete as rival entrepreneurs in Birmingham and its surrounding towns. Establish canals and railways, develop industries, and outmaneuver your opponents across two distinct eras.
2-4 Players · Canal Era + Rail Era · Hotseat Multiplayer
Canal Era (1770-1830) — Build canals and establish your first industries. Only one tile per location. At the end, all canals and Level I tiles are removed — but Level II+ tiles carry over and score again.
Rail Era (1830-1870) — Build railways (requiring coal), expand aggressively with multiple tiles per location, and push for the highest score.
Canal Era — industries built across the Midlands, canal links connecting the network
Rail Era — railways criss-cross the map as players race toward final scoring
Choose from six industry types, each with a unique strategic role:
| Industry | Role | Key Trait |
|---|---|---|
| Cotton Mills | Sell goods for VP | Expensive but high-scoring |
| Coal Mines | Fuel rail links and industries | Cheap, strong income |
| Iron Works | Supply iron for building and development | Efficient, denies opponents |
| Manufacturers | 8 unique levels with varied rewards | Versatile and complex |
| Potteries | Massive VP potential (up to 20 VP) | High cost, requires planning |
| Breweries | Supply beer for selling goods | The most important industry |
Select what to build, where, and for how much — all costs including coal and iron sourcing are calculated automatically.
Build action — choose from available industries at locations matching your cards
A persistent action phase bar guides you through each turn:
- Choose Action — Pick from Build, Network, Develop, Sell, Loan, Scout, or Pass
- Select Target — Choose what/where to build, which connection, etc.
- Discard Card — Valid cards glow gold; invalid cards are dimmed
The phase bar shows your current step, contextual instructions, and a cancel button. Press Escape at any time to abort.
When waiting for card selection, action buttons and your player mat dim to focus attention on your hand. Only valid discard options are clickable.
A scrollable game log in the right panel records every action: builds, network links, sales, loans, and more — color-coded by player. No more relying on fleeting toast notifications.
Between turns, a brief animated overlay shows the next player's name in their color, giving a clear visual break.
Right panel — player stats, markets with current prices, and the game log
Spend iron to remove low-level tiles from your player mat and access the powerful high-level industries underneath. Optionally develop two tiles at once.
Develop action — skip past weak tiles to access Level III+ industries
Play location cards to build anywhere on the map, or industry cards to build within your network. Manage your hand carefully — every action costs a card.
Cards show inline SVG icons matching each industry type, with colored top borders indicating card type (green for location, red for industry, gold gradient for wild).
Bottom panel — your hand of cards, the seven available actions, and your remaining industry tiles
The game board features:
- Parchment texture via SVG noise filters and a radial vignette
- Double-line canal connections (translucent blue water effect)
- Rail connections with track-tie patterns
- Geometric SVG icons on industry slots and built tiles (factory, diamond, gear, crate, vase, barrel)
- City nodes with dark label backdrops, inner shadow depth, and increased region color opacity
- VP badges on flipped tiles, player color strips on built tiles
At the end of each era, score VP from your flipped industry tiles and the links connecting them. Higher-level tiles placed in the Canal Era score in both eras.
Canal Era scoring — link VP and industry VP tallied for each player
python3 -m http.server 8080
Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser. No build step or dependencies.
- Choose 2-4 players and enter names
- Click Begin Game
- Select an action from the action panel (Build, Network, Develop, Sell, Loan, Scout, or Pass)
- Follow the phase bar — it shows your current step and what to do next
- Choose your target from the modal or board
- Click a valid card (highlighted with a gold pulse) to discard
Disabled action buttons show tooltips explaining why they can't be used (e.g. "No iron available", "Need at least 3 cards").
The game handles all resource sourcing (coal, iron, beer), market pricing, turn order, and scoring automatically.
- Build breweries early — Beer is the most contested resource in the game
- Watch the turn order — Spending less money means going first next round
- Develop to skip weak tiles — Accessing Level III+ tiles is worth the iron cost
- Build in the Canal Era for double scoring — Level II+ tiles persist into the Rail Era
- Don't ignore income — It compounds every round and scores VP at the end
This implementation follows the official Brass: Birmingham rulebook:
- Coal requires a connected source (mine or market via merchant link)
- Iron can be taken from any iron works on the board — no connection needed
- Beer for selling comes from your own breweries (anywhere), connected opponent breweries, or merchant barrels
- Overbuilding your own tiles requires same type + higher level; opponent coal/iron tiles can only be overbuilt when that resource is globally depleted
- Pottery I and III have the lightbulb icon and cannot be developed — they must be built
- Turn order each round goes to whoever spent the least money
Pure HTML/CSS/JS — no build tools, no frameworks, no external images.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
index.html |
Layout: setup screen, game screen with phase bar, game log, overlays |
css/style.css |
Dark Victorian theme with CSS animations, card-select mode, transitions |
js/gameData.js |
All constants: tiles, cities, connections, cards, merchants, markets |
js/gameState.js |
Game state, market mechanics, network pathfinding, turn management |
js/gameLogic.js |
All 7 actions + getDisabledReason() for tooltip feedback |
js/boardRenderer.js |
SVG board with texture filters, styled connections, geometric icons |
js/uiManager.js |
Phase bar, card selection mode, game log, turn transitions, modals |
js/main.js |
Entry point, setup screen |
- Brass: Birmingham designed by Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman, and Martin Wallace
- Published by Roxley Games
- Tile data verified against the Tabletop Simulator implementation by Kini/ikegami
- Board geography and card data referenced from community implementations
Fan-made digital adaptation for personal and educational use. All game design credit belongs to the original designers and publisher.