Brass

This is an excellent implementation of a great boardgame for playing on iPad. Brass (2007), now called Brass:Lancashire). The screen displays, game board, scoreboard, turn play animations, and turn action options are very clearly presented, and make playing easy for the experienced player. The AI that controls the computer opponents (if played solo) also seems excellent. I have the actual boardgame but I reached an impasse trying to learn the rules, and so I did the full tutorial in this app for iPad, and then with the printed rulebook in hand, the app ready to play, and the actual boardgame set up identically on my table, I just played through a solo learning game. Overall it’s helped me better understand the game play, but I wish I could stop or at least slow down the computer turn moves so I could learn from how they were playing. I also wish there was a button I could tap to get recommendations for my next move. So, overall, this is a great implementation for experienced players, and with a couple additional Help features it would be a valuable tool for learning Brass.

This is a great implementation of the board game Brass: Lancashire by Martin Wallace. It is a tense economic board game where you try to outsmart your opponents - building coal mines, iron works, and cotton mills at the right time. The hard part is that as you build across England, you can only access the cities connected to your network of canals and railways. When you spend more money than your opponents, you move after them in the following turn. It ends up being a delicate balance of spending and saving money, while striking at the right time to score points. The AI is good enough that I have problems beating them in a four-player game, but it really shines with multiplayer. I've been having fun playing with my board game group that moved across the country. The notifications sometimes don't work, so we use Discord to let the next player know when it's their turn. We also noticed a minor display bug with the distant markets, but it doesn't really affect gameplay. Overall a great game, even if there is somewhat of a learning curve.

Nothing kills the time sitting in the washroom like a great eurogame port, and boy am I happy to find a solid app version of Brass. The art is lovely, the interface functional, and the game is, of course, fantastic. The only reason this app does not earn a full 5 star rating is that I, like a few other folks before me it seems, am bothered by the lack of an undo button available before finalizing your turn. Nothing ruins a good game of Brass like gambling it all for a shipyard in Birkenhead only to realize you’ve just accidentally spent 8 quid on port development. Weak a critique as that is, you should definitely still buy this port if you love Brass.