by Justin Bell

60,000 gamers (including me) have been intently following the crowdfunding updates for the Brass: Pittsburgh campaign launching on March 24th. I’m a massive fan of the Brass system, as an owner of Brass (aka Brass: Lancashire) and Age of Industry (along with its first set of expansion maps, Japan and Minnesota). I’m also very happy to play your copy of Brass: Birmingham any time you want, for reasons I described in my Meeple Mountain review a few years ago.

While Santa’s elves spend the next few months working on the Brass: Pittsburgh production–sexy metal coins aren’t going to make themselves, after all–I’ve still got plenty to do to pass the time. That’s because campaigns for expansions, second editions, reprints, deluxe copies and additional games in the same universe always do the thing I love most–they fire up the base of players who love earlier games in these series, making these titles much easier to get to the table while riding the hype wave.

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For about eight months in 2024, whenever I went to a game night, I placed my copy of Brass: Lancashire in my gaming “go bag.”

I tried to have Lancashire ready just in case my ideal scenario popped if we didn’t already have another game lined up. Every week, in every part of Chicagoland, no matter what else had been planned for that game night, I popped Lancashire into the bag. And every week, without fail, I would socialize my bag’s contents, then end with something like “…I’ve also got Brass: Lancashire in the bag, you know, just in case anyone wants to get that to the table.”

As you have guessed, Lancashire never hit during that window of time. There were always reasons, or excuses, why it never hit—”oh, you’ve got that hot review copy of _____”, “nah, let’s do a bunch of fillers instead”; “we only have about two hours left, and I thought Brass takes longer”—but the reality is that I never structured an entire night around getting Lancashire to the table. (I did play Birmingham twice in that time, ironic because I prefer Lancashire over Birmingham if I had to pick just one of those two titles.)

One of the other reasons why Lancashire never hit: I insist on playing it with exactly four players. The game is brutal regardless of player count, but it is perfect AND perfectly brutal with four players. A couple of times, Lancashire didn’t come out because we had three players, or a player count higher than four and needed another title to accommodate the group.

So, I went oh-for-eight-months back in ‘24. But now that we have a new Brass game on the horizon? It’s never been easier to get a game of Brass rolling. Just accidentally cough the word “Brass” while standing in a crowd of gamers right now, and you can probably get it to the table.

“Sorry, did you say Brass? Funny, I was just thinking we should get a game going.”

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It’s happening at game nights in my circles and at get-togethers across the Chicagoland area…which tells me this phenomenon is probably happening everywhere.

I’m seeing Brass titles on the dance card a little more often right now. One of the heavyweight strategy nights in my area has had Lancashire or Birmingham pop up a couple times in the last month. Another friend had the chance to play the Pittsburgh prototype recently, thanks to copies hitting the hands of local influencers who are completing review plays in time for the wide range of coverage hitting the interwebs this week.

This might be the easiest time to ever get a Brass game to the table. But firing up the base doesn’t stop there, with a number of other titles suddenly getting hot thanks to the news of more expansion goodies hitting shelves soon.

My love affair with Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon means that the game hits my table from time to time. But with the release of the new expansion, Shackleton Base: Below. Within. Above., suddenly everyone else I know is interested in getting games of Shackleton Base rolling, too. It seems like The Old King’s Crown is everywhere right now…and there’s a new campaign active now for the game’s second printing that includes not only an expansion, but another game in the same universe, Annulet.

Now we’re even getting “games in the same universe” spinoffs! Maybe next year, we’ll get Chicago Annulet, helping NBC/Peacock maintain its stranglehold on Wednesday nights after episodes of Chicago Med, Fire, and PD.

Regicide’s new campaign is pushing not just one, but two new titles. The new Pirates of Maracaibo expansion Bermuda Triangle has given me yet another excuse to get plays of the base game in, both in person and on Board Game Arena. And Voidfall has an expansion AND a campaign game coming…which drove me to pull my Galactic Box off the shelf to get more solo plays in. (OK, OK, you got me: I only opened the box to slip faction mats into the triple-layer player boards. Don’t lie, Voidfall players–you’ve done the same thing!)

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I know a number of people who avoid all these expansions, reprints, and deluxifications (it’s a word, trust me); to each their own. I use these opportunities to remember what I loved about the base game in the first place. Will these new goodies make me feel differently about why I fell in love with the initial titles? We’ll see. But any excuse to get some of my favorites to the table is an excuse that is good enough for me.

Fire it up!