Brass Birmingham is a strategy and economic game that tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the Industrial Revolution from 1770 to 1870. The game board represents a map of the Birmingham area from that time. The available cities can host certain types of factories. Each player has a personal compartment with factory tiles, including coal mines, steelworks, cotton mills, ports, and shipyards. The cities must also be connected to each other. In the first half of the game, players use canals, and in the second half, they gradually replace them with railways.

In Brass Birmingham, victory points correspond to industrialization. Canals and railways bring victory points, while factories earn points only when they can produce, and mines earn points only when they can supply the extracted resources to the factories. To win the game, players must score the most victory points, which are counted at the end of each phase.

Your goal will be to expand your business by producing and exporting cotton, ceramics, and industrial goods. You will also need to build breweries, as beer is used as a medium of exchange for exports. The resources requested for export change with each game.