Through a Brass Darkly

When I arrived, I was given pancakes and a seat at the family table. What a happy start to what was to be a long evening. Since we were just three (Joe, Adam and myself) we chose our favourite on-line distraction: Brass. Although Martin Wallace's game is more like a collection of rules that don't fit together properly, we still found it had an allure that we couldn't resist. And so we donned our imaginary stove pipe hats and mutton chops and stood around, clutching our lapels and moaning about price of building t' cotton mill.

The first thing we noticed was how rusty we were regarding the rules. We were used to the internet dealing out cards, giving us money and telling us when we couldn't do things, so it took a while to get going. And then, once we were going, it took a while to keep going.

I went for my usual shipyard tactic which I think I've got down to a fine art (three out of four shipyards built). That fact that I still came last is the final nail in its coffin. It don't think I'll be going for that strategy again.

Really, the evening was between Adam and Joe. I wish I'd taken notes of what they were doing because, thinking back, I have no idea. They looked at the rule book a lot. Maybe that helped.

At the halfway point, I was in the lead, but that was thanks to my network of canals which get removed at that point. I started the second half with few industries on the board, while Adam had plenty of buildings scattered about. Joe trod a path somewhere between us throughout the evening.

By the end, Adam must've been confident in winning since he was giving both me and Joe advice so we could end sooner. Even with that help, we completed the game at quarter past midnight. We were a little older (by four hours, to be exact), a little wiser and quite a lot puzzled as to how it took so long.

Adam 204 (a new high score!)
Joe 184
Andrew 165 (and a personal best for me)

Adam leaps up the form table thanks to losing a fifth place result and replacing it with a shiny new first place.

						Points
Sam	1	2	1	3	2	9
Adam	1	2	1	4	2	10
Joe	2	4	3	3	1	13
Steve	4	4	1	1	2	13*
Jonny	1	3	5	3	3	15
Andrew	3	3	4	2	3	15
Anja	2	2	4	4	5	17
Quentin	1	3	5	5	5	19
Hannah	2	3	5	5	5	20

* the decay rule –people with five results registered, after a while, will find their score go down one point per week if they don't attend for three weeks. It may sound harsh, but it stops the regulars getting resentful. If they attend another evening, all decay points are removed.