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In John Company, each player becomes an ambitious family trying to manipulate the British East India Trading Company for their own gains.
The game has 3 thematic scenarios to begin from, with each having different game lengths, map set-ups and mechanics.
The aim of the game is to collect the most points before the game ends. This is achieved primarily by successfully retiring members of your office and using your acquired fortunes to place them in homes.
The game can end after so many rounds, or if the company fails due to the players (sometimes deliberate) mismanagement. This is a game of negotiations, bartering, deals, betrayals and clever control of funds and the board state to determine a winner.
So many roles to learn, but not so hard to teach
John Company has a pretty overwhelming and, at least initially, intimidating board. Lots of tracks monitoring things like debt and company standing. Army boxes, different sea zones, a large colourful map of India full of tokens, a lot of cards and a large track which allows players to follow the turn structure.
The game has many phases and roles to understand. I would be lying if I said this was smooth sailing to learn. Although most of the basic actions are straight forward, there is just a lot going on.
This brings me to the game’s rules. Clear enough at times but simultaneously vague at others.
You will spend a lot of time flicking back and forth, jumping from section to section and the events in India is a headache in itself to learn.
India is a live, thriving part of the board and players will draw event cards that contain very minimalistic information that can dictate revolts and rebellions.
Despite the game’s challenges to learn (Board Game Geek has the difficulty at a staggering 4.44/5) it is actually a breeze to teach others. In fact, this was the most enjoyable session I had teaching friends to play.
John Company’s game flow invokes a very natural rolling teach. By this I mean that after a brief overview, player’s can simply jump in and play, learning as they go.
In a game of this depth, very numerous roles to learn and mechanics, that’s an impressive feat.
How does the company work?
A standard game of John Company typically last 5-8 rounds, with each round consisting of 9 phases.
To begin we have the family phase. This is where player’s can purchase ships to trade, luxuries and workshops for points and voting, place units in a section to be recruited into the army, seek company shares or hire writers to work in 1 of 3 presidential boxes linked to board regions.
Next we have hiring, this is where any of the numerous roles that are vacant will be given to players based on who qualifies.
We then have the company operations and we follow the marker as it passes to each role and gives a player a chance to perform actions.
The game begins with these roles randomly assigned but later on certain roles can elect others, with player’s encouraged to bargain and beg for a role they need.
Each role is important in making the company perform well and this is something that players should aim to maintain, if they can.
Seeking debt, causing unrest and failing to stop rebellions are a few of the issues that can crop up and cause the company standing to drop. Let it drop too far and the game ends early, with a modified scoring section and a card being drawn randomly to dish out negative points to a certain role!
There are many roles in the game and some even open up, like governors, as you play. The chairman can increase the company balance with debt and then is free to allocate funds collected to various offices.
Everyone wants money and you are kind of working together but each player is trying to amass great wealth, so choosing where these go is an important and extremely entertaining task.
We have roles that open up closed orders, build and place ships, move army units around and attempt to invade or trade around India.
The bonus phase is next where players get a bit of extra cash for ships and workshops.
Next is revenue. The company balance will be reduced based on the number of ships, armies and debts currently on the board. As your game goes on and your armies and ships flood the map, you will need to make sure you are making trades or successful invasions to get some extra money!
Then we move onto the events in India phase. We draw large circular cards that cause various things like storms, turmoil or conflict across different regions.
Next up is voting. The player who is the prime minister draws a few law cards and must chose which one to try and pass. These can add new game rules, penalties or even tax or give bonuses to different game aspects.
These laws can be tough to pass and not all players will agree, plus if the law passes the controlling player gains power.
After cleanup we go to the London season. This is where each player rolls a dice for every office card they have with the hopes of retiring them and banking some victory points!
Manage your funds and push your luck
So how does the majority of John Company play?
It really boils down to 3 key game concepts.
Money management, dice rolling and semi-cooperative gameplay.
Your money is important here. You have the funds available in your various office boxes and your personal supply.
Money for the roles you acquire is used pay for dice which are rolled for actions and money in your personal supply is used to buy luxuries, workshops, ships and to pay for retirement homes.
As you make clever trades or successful invasions across the board, you are trying to both improve the company standing and increase your own wealth.
This brings me onto the semi-cooperative gameplay. This is almost like a euro game but with a twist.
Yes you are technically playing a competitive game, with only 1 winner. However players are naturally forced to work together and plan moves and future turns to keep the company going.
It’s like a train on the way to a glorious destination but everyone needs to chip in and burn the coal to make it. Not purchasing ships, failing the big trades or increasing the debt can derail the train and ruin the journey for everyone.
The good thing here is that even if the game is going down the path of company failure, its still fun. Players can cleverly adapt to this game state and plan for the future by purchasing luxuries and saving their money.
The dice rolling is the bulk of the gameplay. Players will spend money to add dice. The more they spend the more dice they can use, resulting in higher success rates. Of course some modifiers can alter dice plus you can still roll bad. In fact you can roll really bad.
Gather your dice and roll. The the lowest visible number is the final result.
1 or 2 is a success. 3 or 4 is a failure, players can instantly pay and retry but its not so bad. 5 or 6 is a catastrophic failure. This can result in your office, like a president or military commander being booted out and sent to an early retirement.
This is where the negotiations and bargaining comes into play. Maybe you really want to pull off that perfect trade route you’ve opened, well you need funds. Will the chairman have faith in you? Maybe you annoyed them last turn when you were in charge?
In addition, players have promise cards they can save for a special occasion. Or they can just straight up bribe you with a bit of private cash in exchange for a role or some funding down the line.
India feels alive
The map of India packs a lot of information. Each region is coloured and contains orders that can be opened (via director or trade or pure brute force) and these are what you need to create a chain of open spots to trade.
Players can then place ships in 1 of the 3 sea zones and use writers to perform trades. This increases the company balance and nabs everyone involved a few extra coins on the side.
Dotted across the map are towers. Each one a different level representing strength and some have flags. These indicate they are part of a specific empire and may combine towers when calculating strength.
Players start just controlling a few regions, each linked to a presidency. These are the points players trade from and can start to attack from.
By investing money in officers or hiring regiments, players can perform offensive strikes across the map. This opens orders, removes towers, allows for more expansions and provides some extra money for everyone involved.
India is an unpredictable beast though. Not only will players experience storms and various setbacks but the most deadly is the crisis event that can be drawn.
As you attack and damage India, unrest gets added and the elephant marker gets moved around. Start pushing your luck around the borders and you risk a rebellion. Best hope you kept some troops for defense.
The most important part of attacking is the resulting governor office that can occur. These simpler roles allow players to roll dice, collect cash and build ships and regiments. Careful though, not only does this increase the revenue but you add unrest the lands, which can result in stronger rebellions.
Maybe not for everyone…but everyone should try it
The main issues with John Company are minor but they stem from the theme of the game itself.
Some players may be put off by the idea off using the British East India trading company or taking attacking and colonizing India.
The game also haas a small problem of not standing out in a crowd of games. With the board setup it is impressive and its mechanics and nature are some of the greatest i’ve ever experienced but some players may see this relatively small box and think theres a worthy game inside.
It’s a shallow way of thinking but it’s the reason I rarely see this gem being played. It deserves more recognition and praise.
If you wrap your head around the rules.
John Company also features a well designed solo mode too. Playing against an opponent call The Crown. It’s challenging and you will use charts constantly but the fact this even functions for a solo experience is a miracle.
Final Thoughts
John Company is one the most unique and entertaining board game experiences I have ever played.
It’s heavy but worth investing into, providing an exciting mix of semi-cooperative gameplay elements and deep, tactical turns that will have players laughing and gasping at each failed dice roll and backstabbing maneuver.