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John Company: Second Edition (Kickstarter)
90m - 240m
1 - 5 Players
Ages 13+
Dice rolling in a game can be used for many things, randomness being the most obvious. Dice can also be used as counters. The dice themselves can be unique and different sizes, shapes and colors to represent different things.
Dice Rolling
Voting allows players to influence the outcome of certain events within the game. The vote may be all or nothing, choosing a target for an effect, or to determine the results of certain situations. Players’ votes may not have equal weight, and blocking a player from voting can be a valid tactic.
Voting
This mechanism requires players to select individual actions from a set of actions available to all players. Players generally select actions one-at-a-time and in turn order. There is usually(*) a limit on the number of times a single action may be taken. Actions are commonly selected by the placement of game pieces or tokens on the selected actions. Each player usually has a limited number of pieces with which to participate in the process.
Worker Placement
98.00
€
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Kickstarter – Gamefound
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BearDot25
Ok yeah, this game is great. The thematic negotiation and extortion it requires of you is unique and very fun. Really my only issue with it is the scoring (which is also my issue with Root and Pax Pamir… odd). It pulls me out of the game getting bogged down in trying to calculate final scores when you make decisions towards the end — that kind of min/maxing feels out of place and game-y in what is otherwise a free-flowing experience. I think the best course of action is to just make an educated guess. I do wonder if the firm game helps make that cleaner… curious to try it. ——— First impressions: This game is too big to have a coherent impression from one game. It’s baroque, opaque, and complex — yet entirely playable, thematic, and a truly unique experience. Hats off to Cole for executing such an ambitious vision. I’m having a hard time gauging if it’s my kind of game. Did I have fun? Definitely. But like Pax games, if sometimes felt more like we were playing an RPG simulation more than a strategy game per se. If you’re into that, you’re going to love this. Though I did start to see how you can (try to) control your destiny + trying to manipulate the interlocking systems and negotiating like a bastard is way more interesting than other Pax games I’ve played. Basically, I need more plays (especially at less than 6) to see if it’s something I’d make time to dive deep into or if it’s something just to do every once in a while. But it’s a fantastic design either way.
AndryWhite
Unique, outstanding, engaging and rewarding socio-economical and political simulation 10+h game (6p).
bcnevan
A refined second edition that ultimately succeeds in bringing John Company’s best to the table. Gameplay, theme, presentation, and meaningful variation from play-to-play are all present. Most of my initial quibbles with the experience wash away as I play the game more and as the players gain experience with how John Company sails the corrupting seas of empire. And its sense of corruption, exploitation, and self-interest are exemplary. Also greatly contributing to the resolving of my initial issues is the framing put forth by one person in my play group: John Company is a press-your-luck game. I agree with a small refinement: John Company is negotiation by press-your-luck. If Sidereal Confluence is a prime example of negotiation by way of resource conversion, John Company is a prime example of negotiation by way of press-your-luck. Within a session of John Company, there are many channels of chance and many table-dependent moments to tack within those channels. And as compared to the first edition of John Company, the second edition brings much more sophistication to its press-your-luck, more immediate grounding to its setting, and more ease to its playability. John Company second edition is one of the, if not the, best negotiation games I’ve played. I still greatly prefer the full deregulation scenario over the “short” 1710 scenario. The full deregulation scenario brings a few more layers to the questions asked of the players. The full scenario also creates competing incentives that help the negotiation and overall experience of the game. Learning the contours of those incentives over successive plays and approaching each play with a bit more knowledge of those contours has brought more enjoyment with each play. I’m still likely to relegate the “short” 1710 scenario to learning games (firms of the deregulation scenario do add a large rules load to the inexperienced). The impact and critical timing of retirement rolls still heavily weigh on the experience of the short scenario (but less than the first edition). I do occasionally contemplate a fairly insulting analogy of this scenario to Catan’s “negotiation” space, but in the end, the story John Company is trying to tell and what it asks of the players makes that analogy more than a bit unfair. The 1710 scenario still has a bunch to offer in story, moments, and authorial expression. But the full deregulation scenario is strictly superior in all aspects, especially in game play experience. Even further, the full deregulation scenario isn’t guaranteed to, and occasionally won't, go longer than the 1710 scenario.