⚠ Previous design stripped. Brass: Birmingham mechanics identified and removed. Three new core systems replace them entirely.
🔍 The Five Brass Problems Identified & Fixed
Each of these made the game feel like "Brass with ice painted on it." All five are replaced below.
Problem 1
Dual-use Lake/Customer cards — Every action costs 1 card. Named cards reach outside your network. This IS Brass's system, word for word.
Fixed by
Customer Order cards — Private orders drafted each round. You fulfill them with your crew. No hand-burning mechanic. Orders define your goal, not how you act.
Problem 2
Link tile network building — Build canals/roads between cities to score and transport resources. Brass's entire geographic layer.
Fixed by
Fixed channels + Sluice Gates — Channels are on the board. Your Floater opens/closes gates. Ice flows automatically. You manage flow, not infrastructure.
Problem 3
Season Wheel era reset — Strip the board, rebuild the deck. Brass's dramatic mid-game reset with new rules.
Fixed by
Temperature Track — Linear -20°C to +20°C. Rises and falls each round via Weather Cards. The thaw is not a reset — it's a gradual tide you can read.
Problem 4
Merchant tile beer bonuses — Customers have beer barrels; consuming triggers a special bonus. Directly imported from Brass, just renamed.
Fixed by
Order urgency premiums — Orders have deadlines and quality premiums. Exceeding the minimum quality earns bonus VP. No beer barrel mechanic at all.
Problem 5
Generic worker placement with card costs — Any worker can do any action if you have the right card. Fully interchangeable.
Fixed by
Specialized Crew Pipeline — Each worker has exactly one job. You deploy all 5 each round. The bottleneck IS the game.
📚 Mechanics Extracted from Top Games Research
Tzolk'in (2012)
Rotating gears → delayed reward for patience
→ Ice ACCUMULATION: sustained cold builds thicker ice. Commit workers early (thin ice, lower reward) or wait for deeper freeze (Crystal ice). The gears are the thermometer.
Barrage (2019)
Water flows downhill automatically; you control dams
→ ICE CHANNELS: cut channels flow ice automatically from lake toward icehouse toward market each round. Open/close sluice gates with your Floater worker. You direct gravity.
A Feast for Odin (2016)
Polyomino placement; cover spaces for income; LIFO extraction
→ THE ICEHOUSE GRID: your player board IS your icehouse. Stack ice blocks as polyomino tiles from the bottom up. Extract from the top only. Edge cells insulate. The SHAPE of your storage is the puzzle.
Viticulture (2013)
Wine aging: value increases over time up to a limit
→ ICE AGING: thin early-season ice (Standard) upgrades to Crystal if left in the right temperature range for enough days. But overstay the freeze and warmth arrives. Identical to wine timing.
Food Chain Magnate (2015)
Worker hierarchy; roles build over time; organizational depth
→ THE LEDARI CREW: 5 workers with fixed roles (Cutter, Floater, Builder, Factor, Hauler). You deploy all 5 each round. No generic workers. Your team structure IS your strategy.
Spirit Island (2017)
Known, unstoppable advance; push-back not elimination
→ THE THAW ADVANCE: warmth spreads from the southern market edge inward each round. You know it's coming. You can't stop it. You optimize around its inevitability — like real harvesters watching the thermometer.
Arcs (2024)
Trick-taking drives action selection; card suit = action type
→ ORDER SELECTION TENSION: each round 3 public Orders are available. You draft 1 order privately. Orders have suits (Quality, Volume, Speed) and fulfilling matching-suit orders gives bonuses. What the market wants changes your priorities.
Everdell (2018)
Players in different seasons simultaneously; season transition = you choose when
→ HARVEST PHASE SELF-TIMING: each player individually declares when their harvest is "done." Sealing your icehouse triggers your personal delivery season. Others may still be harvesting when you're delivering.
❄ Three Core Original Mechanics The New Game
Core Mechanic 1 of 3
The Temperature Track
A shared thermometer that rises and falls every round. The game has no seasons — only weather.
Each round, the active player draws 2 Weather Cards: one Trend (long-range: warming or cooling by 2-3°C) and one Event (short-range: snap freeze, warm front, fog, rain). Their net effect moves the temperature marker.
Temperature Effects:
Below −12°CTHICK ICE: Crystal blocks; +3 blocks per CUT−12°C to −5°CNORMAL ICE: Standard blocks; +2 blocks per CUT−5°C to 0°CTHIN ICE: Standard only, fragile; +1 block per CUT0°CFREEZE POINT: no harvest; ice stable0°C to +10°CWARM: no harvest; ice decays 1× per roundAbove +10°CHOT: no harvest; ice decays 2× per round; Spring Thaw event
The key insight: temperature rises and FALLS throughout the game. A warm spell doesn't end winter permanently — a cold snap can restore it. Real harvesters obsessively tracked temperature.
The Cold Accumulation Track: a secondary track counting consecutive days below −5°C. At 7 days: ice forms (Standard). At 14 days: ice thickens (Crystal available). Each warm day resets it by 3. Harvesters needed sustained cold — one warm day could undo a week of accumulation.
Strategy: do you cut now at Standard, or wait for Crystal? Every warm Weather Card is a threat to your accumulation. The Factor specialist (supervisor) can read the Weather Card before deciding whether to commit the Cutter.
Real ice required -12°C sustained for at least 2 weeks to reach the 12-inch thickness needed for safe horse operations. A single thaw could crack and ruin the surface. Harvesters tracked temperature daily — it was existential information.
TEMPERATURE TRACK — visual (−20°C to +20°C)
THICK ICE Crystal possible
NORMAL ICE Standard
THIN ICE Fragile
0°
NO HARVEST Slow melt
NO HARVEST Fast melt
−20°C
−12°C
−5°C
0°
+10°C
+20°C
COLD ACCUMULATION TRACK — how thick ice grows
Day 0
1
2
1cm
3
2cm
4
3cm
5
5cm
6
8cm
7
Standard unlocks
10cm
8
12cm
9
15cm
10
18cm
11
22cm
12
25cm
13
30cm
14
💎 Crystal!
36cm
15
40cm
16
46cm
17
Each warm day above 0°C: accumulation drops by 3. One week of warm weather can erase two weeks of cold.
Core Mechanic 2 of 3
The Icehouse Grid
Your player board IS your icehouse. Ice is stacked as physical tiles. Bottom-up packing, top-down delivery.
YOUR ICEHOUSE BOARD (5 wide × 4 deep)
↑ SHIP from here (top-exposed blocks only)
·
💎
·
·
·
💎
⬜
💎
·
·
⬜
⬜
⬜
🌫
·
⬜
🌫
⬜
⬜
⬜
↓ PACK new ice here (bottom row first)
Left/right edges = insulated (1× slower decay)
Center columns = exposed (normal decay)
Pack from bottom up: New ice arrives at the bottom. Must fill lower rows before placing above. Like a real icehouse — you pack the floor first, then stack up.
Ship from the top: When you deliver ice to a customer, you take exposed blocks from the top of any column. Ice beneath is not accessible until above it is cleared.
Edge insulation: Blocks in the leftmost and rightmost columns decay 1× slower (the icehouse wall provides natural insulation). Center blocks are exposed to air circulation.
Strategic packing: Your Crystal ice (highest VP) should go in early — it'll be buried deep, protected, and you'll clear Standard/Aged off the top first. But if a premium order arrives now, you can't reach it!
Blocks come in sizes: 1×1 (small chip), 1×2 (half block), 2×2 (full block). Full 2×2 blocks are most efficient per VP but take 4 cells — the spatial puzzle is real.
Real icehouses packed blocks in interlocking layers with sawdust between. Deeper blocks were extracted last. The Prague Branicke ledarny (1909) had three elevators specifically because accessing deep-stored ice required mechanical lifting — the LIFO problem was a real engineering challenge.
Core Mechanic 3 of 3
The Ledari Crew Pipeline
Five workers, five roles, one pipeline. Each round you deploy all five. Any gap in the chain blocks that stage.
Ice moves through 5 stages each round. You assign one worker to each stage you want to operate. Unassigned stages are simply skipped — ice doesn't flow through them.
🪚CUTTERCUT ice at assigned lake. Accumulation Track determines quality.
→
🎣FLOATEROpens 1 sluice gate. Ice flows through open channels automatically.
→
🏗BUILDERPacks arrived ice optimally into icehouse grid. Without Builder: ice packs randomly (worst position).
→
📋FACTORSupervisor. Assigned to ANY stage to double its output. Also: inspects ice quality (upgrades thin ice if conditions allow).
→
🚚HAULERDelivers top-grid ice to fulfill a Customer Order. Without Hauler: no delivery this round.
The key bottleneck decision: do you double the Cutter (Factor) to get more ice this round, or assign Factor to Builder (optimal packing) or Hauler (more blocks delivered)? There's always one stage more important than the others.
Reassigning workers: each round you can reassign any worker to a different stage. It costs 1 extra Sawdust to move a worker more than 1 stage away (they need to walk there — historical realism).
Ice without a Floater: you still get ice — but it doesn't flow through channels. It sits at the lake zone and must be manually carried (Hauler can do it in an emergency, but at −1 ice quality per carry step — the ice rattles in the cart).
Workers can level up: each worker has 3 expertise levels. Junior Cutter: cut 3 blocks. Expert Cutter: cut 5 blocks + can read ice thickness before committing. This is the Kanban EV certification system applied to the ledari crew.
Czech ledari teams had exactly 10-12 men, each with one role. The Factor (supervisor) was critical — he decided when ice was thick enough, how fast to cut, how to time the extraction before the weather turned. A bad Factor decision could cost the whole season's work.
📋 Customer Orders Replacing merchant tiles
Instead of static Customer tiles at board edges, a shared Order deck drives customer demand. Each round, 3 Orders are face-up. Each player privately drafts 1. Fulfill it by shipping the right ice before the deadline.
🏥 City Hospital
Needs: 4 Crystal blocks By: end of this round
12 VP
⚡ Urgent — expires this round
🍺 The Brewery
Needs: 6 Standard+ blocks By: end of season
8 VP
Quality bonus: +2VP if Crystal
🐟 Fishmonger
Needs: 10 Any blocks By: end of next 3 rounds
7 VP + £4
Volume play — no quality req.
⚓ Export Wharf
Needs: 5 Standard+ blocks By: end of season
14 VP
⚡ Blocks must flow through 3+ channels. Tudor Gamble risk applies.
Order Suits (from Arcs inspiration)
Orders belong to one of 3 suits. If you fulfill 3 orders of the same suit in a season, earn a suit bonus:
💎 Quality suit — Crystal-heavy orders. Bonus: +3VP for most Crystal blocks delivered this season.
📦 Volume suit — bulk orders. Bonus: first player to 20 total blocks delivered draws 2 extra orders next season.
⚡ Speed suit — urgent orders. Bonus: your Hauler acts before all other Haulers this season (priority delivery).
Why this replaces merchant tiles
Orders are private — you don't know which order your rival took. Strategic uncertainty.
Orders expire — there's a delivery clock on each one. Creates urgency within the round structure.
Orders have quality premiums — exceeding minimum requirement scores bonus VP. Encourages Crystal ice even for Standard-minimum orders.
Orders rotate — the market changes every round. Different customers want different things, week to week. Like real ice contracts.
🔃 The New Game Loop
No card costs per action. No network building. Just weather, crew, and ice.
1
Weather — flip 2 cards, adjust temperature + accumulation
Temperature marker moves. Accumulation track advances (or resets if warm). Everyone sees the same weather. No hiding it.
2
Order Draft — 3 new Orders face-up; each player secretly takes 1
Reveal simultaneously. Now you know what each player is trying to deliver. Competition begins.
3
Crew Deployment — assign your 5 workers to stages (simultaneous, face-down, then reveal)
All players assign simultaneously. Reveal together. This is the key decision each round: which stages to optimize, where to put the Factor.
4
Pipeline Runs — stages fire in order: Cut → Float → Build → Inspect → Haul
Each stage resolves for all players (in turn order per stage). Ice moves through the pipeline. Gaps = ice doesn't move through that stage. Quality checked at Inspect.
5
Thaw Advance — warm marker moves 1 step from the south edge inward
If warm marker reaches a lake zone: ice at that zone cannot be cut next round. The thaw advances inevitably, like Spirit Island's invader spread — but you can predict it.
6
Icehouse Decay — each icehouse block decays based on current temperature
Grid blocks decay based on their position (edge = protected, center = exposed) and current temperature. No decay if temperature below −5°C. Double decay above +10°C.
7
Income — collect income based on fulfilled orders this round
Money from fulfilled orders only. No passive income track. You earn what you deliver.
✅ What Survived from the Old Design
These elements were genuinely good and not Brass-specific. They stay.
Crystal/Standard/Aged/Puddle ice states — still the melt track, now driven by temperature + grid position
5-era campaign — Ice Pits → First Trade → Ice King → Export Wars → Last Harvest. Historical arc preserved.