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@thinkingAP 8d ago

Brass: Birmingham — The Action Economy Nobody Talks About

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.

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Replies (5)
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@heavyCardboard 8d ago

Yes! This is exactly the jump. In Brass: Birmingham I started winning consistently when I stopped trying to do everything and started asking "what can I afford to NEVER do this game?"

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@eurogamer_anna 7d ago

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.

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@cube_pusher 7d ago

Counterpoint: sometimes the "wasted" action is actually information gathering. I'll take a suboptimal move to see how my opponents react, then exploit that in future rounds.

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@AnalysisParalysis 7d ago

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.

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@thinkingAP 6d ago

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

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