Brass: Birmingham uses two related ideas that answer different questions. Your network controls where you may extend your own links and often where you may build. Connection follows a path of links owned by any player and matters when you transport coal or use another player’s beer.
What is part of your network?
A location is part of your network if it contains at least one of your Industry tiles or is adjacent to at least one of your Link tiles. Opponents’ links do not make their neighboring locations part of your network. For the separate connection test, a route of links may use links belonging to any players.
Example: An opponent’s canal connects your Cotton Mill to a Merchant that accepts cotton. The locations are connected for that Sell action, but the canal is still not your link. It does not let you start a new link from an otherwise unrelated location merely by calling it part of your network.
Where may a Network action place a Link?
Discard a card and place a link on an undeveloped line adjacent to a location in your network. If you have no Industry or Link tiles on the board, your first-link exception permits any otherwise legal undeveloped line. A Rail Era link still requires coal even when this exception applies.
Canal Era: one canal
During the Canal Era, a Network action places at most one canal Link on a canal line for £3. A second canal requires a separate action and card. Rail links cannot be built in this era.
Rail Era: one or two rails
| Network action | Cash | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| One rail | £5 | 1 coal |
| Two rails | £15 | 1 coal per rail, plus 1 beer from a Brewery |
Place the two links one at a time. Each rail must be connected to an eligible coal source after that rail is placed; you cannot wait until the second rail to make the first one’s coal legal. The first link may create the connection needed by the second. The extra beer for a two-rail action must come from a Brewery, never from a Merchant’s beer barrel. Your own Brewery need not be connected. Another player’s Brewery must be connected to the second rail after it is placed.
Example: You plan to build two rails toward an opponent’s Brewery. If the first rail can reach a legal coal source after placement, pay and consume that coal. Place the second rail, check its coal connection independently, then check that the opponent’s Brewery connects to that second rail for the beer. Merely seeing the Brewery on the map is insufficient.
Quick legality checklist
- Is this a canal line in the Canal Era or a rail line in the Rail Era?
- Is the line adjacent to a location in your network, or do you qualify for the first-link exception?
- For each rail, can its just-placed link reach the coal source required by the resource rules?
- For two rails, can you pay £15 and consume Brewery beer under the ownership/connection rule?
For the difference between nearest connected coal, unrestricted iron and beer sources, use the resource reference. For the complete turn sequence, see How to Play Brass: Birmingham.
Publisher source
Base-game rules checked October 2026. Examples illustrate the rulebook’s network, connection and action requirements.