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John Company
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So the basics are so *my shit* I cannot even tell you. Early returns suggest it's a semi-coop with no "everyone fails" point---instead there's always a winner but for anyone to make any money they all have to cooperate. All players play families trying enrich themselves out of the coffers the British East India Company. The Company's operations are determined by whomever holds the various offices of the Company---so if you hold a particular office that determines operations in a particular region, you get to decide policy in the region. Or an executive office that decides shipbuilding for the company, you make shipbuilding decisions. So it's all about jockeying for offices, doing just enough good for the company to make *yourself* rich with Company money, while India itself goes through booms, busts and rebellions you have to ride out. But tanking the company is also really important and, at some point, the East India Company will have been immoral and irresponsible enough for long enough that the British government will take it over.
Anyway. Man. Curious to see how this thing plays out. These types of games make me want a real game group of local friends so bad.
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I was going to start this thread, if only because I accidentally co-opted cranberries' misnamed Root thread with John Company talk.
At least we'll have a place to come back to. There's no Vassal module as yet, although with the potential for heavy negotiation at almost any time I'm thinking this isn't going to do async very well at all. I'm not even looking at it (beyond checking components and a riffle through the rules) for at least a week die to other comittments, then I'm interested to see how it works.
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1) The game is very hierarchical, pushing it toward more 18XX business simulation than like free-form Archipelago semi-coop or something like that. That's because the ship everyone is riding to make money for their family, the East India Company, is organized very hierarchically. The company top position is so powerful, at first glance---he fills ALL high level positions at his discretion AND he gains all company revenue centrally, which he then distributes to the various positions. That gives him a tremendous amount of power and a lot of say and investment in how the company does. Of course, he's voted in by the majority of shareholders (players who bought shares), so...
2) Many of the ways to make individual families money (the money that wins you the game eventually by letting you as the player buy manors, high level positions in governments when your dudes retire, etc) are, in fact, about attaching to the company like a leech and getting it to buy from you. So dumping resources into factories, ships, captains, officers, etc are family decisions that the *company* may end up having to use and paying out at least some money to the family directly. Similarly, if you give the company "officers" the players supplying them get paid back quite a bit if there's a successful war or conquest using those officers, etc.
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1) Captains and officers don't enter the actual boxes they'll be used in until the refresh phase at the end of the turn. I played it wrong.
2) Indian states dominate one another and form into empires and conglomerations. I didn't understand this because it's tucked away in a definition near the beginning. So the setup picture has the Indian state cards set up in relation to one another for a reason. It won't be clear how relevant this is until the Indian events phase.
4) Don't forget when Indian states do a successful conquest or another thing that the elephant moves to another card that is not necessarily the next numbered one. Easy rule to miss.
Also, re: something Paul said, the back of the board isn't a simpler game but rather a very different game that supposed the company/monopoly never formed.
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ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-episode-163...ain-in-the-asymmetry
Geoff
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On the other hand, the only way they can get VPs is through the manors they buy as the other players will not appoint them to any positions---and VPs outside of manors are gotten through retiring from a prestigious company position *and* money and they convert to VPs at a much more advantageous rate. There's a ton of shit in the game that is not victory point producing that is important but ultimately will give you nothing at game end that helps you win.
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They did seem awfully cavalier about the "oh just keep it!" on the wrong shipments.
I'm just glad mine arrived on time with no obvious issues (but I guess I need to count the cubes when I get home).
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.Not Sure wrote: I've been following that thread. That's all pretty jacked up (although I haven't heard ShipNaked's side of it).
They did seem awfully cavalier about the "oh just keep it!" on the wrong shipments.
I'm just glad mine arrived on time with no obvious issues (but I guess I need to count the cubes when I get home).
I did a complete parts inventory as soon as I got the games. Thankfully no issues.
Ship Naked's rep is so shitty I don't need to hear their side.
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Msample wrote: Kind of related: Eklund gets fucked by Ship Naked :
boardgamegeek.com/article/28120486#28120486
Yeah, I got really lucky to get this instead of a random copy of bios megafauna.
But it's all fair in the free market, amirite?
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engelstein wrote: We had Cole Wehrle on Ludology a few months back, and he talked a bit about the John Company design process.
ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-episode-163...ain-in-the-asymmetry
Geoff
Also, I just listened to this and it was interesting. I listened to a couple other ludology eps on my long drive and enjoyed them, though I must admit a subtitle for the show could just be a picture of Geoff saying "Gil, could you be more specific with that praise or criticism?"
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