John Company: Second Edition
GAME OVERVIEW
In John Company, players assume the roles of ambitious families attempting to use the British East India Company for personal gain. The game begins in the early eighteenth-century, when the Company has a weak foothold on the subcontinent. Over the course of the game, the Company might grow into the most powerful and insidious corporation in the world or collapse under the weight of its own ambition.
John Company is a game about state-sponsored trade monopoly. Unlike most economic games players often do not control their own firms. Instead, they will collectively guide the Company by securing positions of power, attempting to steer the Company’s fate in ways that benefit their own interests. However, the Company is an unwieldy thing. It is difficult to do anything alone, and players will often need to negotiate with one another. In John Company, most everything is up for negotiation.
Ultimately, this game isn’t about wealth; it’s about reputation. Each turn some of your family members may retire from their Company positions, giving them the opportunity to establish estates. Critically, players do not have full control over when these retirements happen. You will often need to borrow money from other players to make the best use for a chance of retirement. Players also gain victory points by competing in the London Season for prestige and securing fashionable properties.
John Company engages very seriously with its theme. It is meant as a frank portrait of an institution that was as dysfunctional as it was influential. Accordingly, the game wrestles many of the key themes of imperialism and globalization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and how those developments were felt domestically. As such, this game might not be suitable for all players. Please make sure everyone in your group consents to this exploration before playing.
The second edition is extensively revised and is not a reprint.
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Customer Reviews
I've never played anything like it. Our group had an outrageous amount of fun playing this game, and it has catapulted itself into my favourite games. It has a bit of a learning curve, but it is well worth it, this game is a masterpiece. The components are high-quality, the artwork is fantastic and the box is full to the brim with content, as you'll know if you've tried other Wehrlegig games.
It's definitely a game that thrives with good table-talk, and rewards multiple playthroughs. While there is plenty of meat to the game, this is a game with a lot of player interaction and a lot of the fun comes from making deals with the other players. Once you know the game's systems and what you want to be able to achieve, you can make better use of the negotiation and bribery mechanisms to bend the other players to your will.
Would recommend watching a few youtube videos to get a feel for the game before buying, as it definitely depends on your group as to how well this will land. The one by RTFM is highly entertaining, and informational.
Fast shipping and packaged nicely and securely!
Make no mistake, this is an epic boardgaming experience. Learning the rules is a non-trivial task, however, once you have got past that initial barrier, all the components (board, cards, etc) are carefully set up to give the cues you need at every step, so as to minimize your trips back to the rulebook during play.
The game puts you in charge of an unscrupulous (or perhaps just thoughtless) British family looking to place various nephews in lucrative positions in the East India Company. The game does not overtly hammer the moral point, but as the turns go by you find yourself extracting wealth and waging war in India with disastrous consequences for the cultural and political stability of the subcontinent, all in order to buy a nice house in the home counties and perhaps secure an advantageous marriage or a seat in parliament.
Be aware, negotiation features strongly in John Company 2nd edition. As a chronic introvert, I'm generally not keen on negotiation games, but JC2 provides you with simple tools for making deals (cash, promises, etc) and I actually found this aspect very enjoyable.
Finally, I have to mention Ricky Royal's truly awesome solitaire module which comes in the already packed with goodies box.
