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Review

Duration: 26:14

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I'm playing Brass, a turn-based strategy game by Cublo Games and PHALANX. Featuring both offline and online play, the goal is this board game adaptation is to accumulate victory points by (primarily) activating industries. Cotton mills and ports are activated by selling cotton at a port, while coal mines and iron works are activated once all of their resources have been used by other buildings or upgrades. Shipyards are automatically activated once built but require upgrades before they can be constructed. Money (the income of which is increased as industries become activated) is used to construct buildings in specific locations on the map, but only if a card displaying the city or type of industry is in hand. Canals, and later railroads, are used to connect cities, allow for more construction, and transport goods. Upgrading buildings will produce more victory points when activated, and loans can be taken as well. Halfway through each game, canals and level 1 buildings disappear, leading to a second scramble to develop. It takes several games to understand all the nuances of Brass, but the game does support multiple strategies for victory. The AI is good at the game as well, providing a very capable opponent. There are some stability issues with the game locking up during AI turns and crashing upon exiting, but overall Brass is a decent computer adaptation of the board game with challenging AI and a good interface.