John Company

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 6 out of 10

   coralsaw

   The rating is for the solo game only. My impression so far is that the multiplayer game is an 8 or 9, assuming the undoubtful fragility of the game does not become a problem. The solo game is an interesting way to learn the company-related mechanisms, leaving outside the huge family-related part of the design space, which is super interesting from an emerging gameplay point of view. I suspect that this is where most of the depth of the game eventually will be, so this hurts the solo experience quite a lot. Otherwise, the main interest of the solo game revolves around learning to predict and game the elephant probabilistic walk system, which is a bit of a stroke of genius in its design, but not enough to keep the solo gamer engaged in the long run. Especially since the narrative of the solo game is not very strong either. I cannot recommend the solo game for repeat plays, but only for learning the ropes. Thanks to Cole for devising the solo variant, but for me, the meat of John Company lies in multiplayer, which I am looking forward to discover, assuming the game gets accepted in my groups.

2. 8 out of 10

   corsicaogre

   Some mild grousing from my group about "too dice dependent", but they still like it. It's got some pretty cool interweaving parts. Wheelin' and Dealin' is the order of the day, and just keeping the company solvent can be a challenge. Cool theme.

3. 8 out of 10

   143245

   ** DISCLAIMER: I was a playtester. ** A shared incentive (*not* a semi-coop) game that, when it shines, spans the boundaries between boardgame and social RPG. The best games of this will be less about the board and you doing actions than the crevices surrounding those actions and what leverage you can extract or how you push your fellow players. It's a sandbox-y game in that whether your company fails, deregulates, is a wild success, needs a bailout, opens China, or favors good shipment will vary between games and in many ways is group and scenario dependent. Stridently *not* for everyone and incredibly group dependent. High control gamers in particular will feel uncomfortable with it (although, like most SMG titles; the person who plays the most skillful game is most likely to win), but for those that enjoy a healthy dose of negotiation in their games, give it a solid look. You roll dice, you roll a bunch of dice actually, but that's not the point. Risk mitigation is the name of the game. The actions are otherwise sort of on-rails with limited player agency; *outside of leverage*, you are proscribed to do many actions to the fullest, and actions you can choose whether to do are dictated by dice rolls (with your input being risk aversion/expenditure), and the chaos induced by the end of round events where the elephant moves (by far, the largest drag on the game and the one thing I wish had been developed out). That's not the point though. Where Chicago Express uses implicit negotiation through actions to communicate and make partnerships, communication by wink and nod, John Company uses a megaphone and artillery. Deals (and leverage) are open, brash, and fast in the same way that Bohnanza's open call auction/market is. This is the heart of the game; leverage and negotiation. John Company uses a similar leverage negotiation effect as Eklund's older Lords games or Bohnanza (e.g. the leverage structure of the card flipping and negotiation). Some absolutely magical moments of gaming (only rivaled by Bezier's ONUW or an SMG Pax game) have transpired out of John Company. Roll well and people needle each other to get ahead. Roll badly, and people straight up blame you which is hilarious in its absurdity, but does bring up one thing that I worry about; what's this like with people who you don't know and you can't rib on. The games I've played with unfamiliar groups have been board-line painful. At times, I don't think there is enough *game* present vs it being an experience (in the same way that I question the solo mode of BIOS:Genesis), especially if one is locked out of the company temporarily and will spend the next hour or so trying to pry their way back in. At other times, I don't care because it's wonderful at what it does. There are two general situations that exist in the early/general/tournament scenario; the company is going well and you're trying to get ahead. Second, the company falls apart. This has a similar strategic feeling as Cole's earlier work An Infamous Traffic (or The King is Dead with Saxon invasion) does in so far as it's entirely possible for things to fail, and there are perfectly legitimate reasons for players to want either scenario to occur. That teetering between failure and success is an interesting dynamic. Sometimes folks come together for periods of time and it's cooperative (or "coopetition") and other times people needle each other to various degrees. For players to do well with this, learning to exploit the events in India (where the elephant moves, whats likely to happen, etc) is important and learning how to create leverage to utilize against other players. Understanding who is now interested in failure and who isn’t is a crux issue. The other scenarios are beasts and really give the game meat by which to chew on for a ton of plays. The campaign game is the base game on steroids. The deregulated company with firms turns into an 18xx-like game with shared ownership stocks, and takeovers bolted on top of the standard game. The John & Co "what if" scenario means regions can be bought or sold and formed into private areas via auction and all sorts of weirdness. The solo game is an odd wargame-ish experience while the others are all different. On top of that, the Bank of England ("1vMany" style) and low-luck die adjustment variants add a new twist on the standard games. Easily a solid 30+ games of content to really explore it from start to finish. The time estimate is woefully low, the early/tournament scenario consistently runs almost 3 hours or more. The campaign game should realistically run around 5, but I've never attempted it. I can see how the standard game could be done in 90min, but I don't think it would be interesting or worth playing if you're not going to negotiate to the fullest… That actually brings out the one thing that makes me smile in a weird way, in that this is an SMG title. Much like Pax Porfiriana, it's a delicate title, with only niche appeal and is ***highly group dependent*** (I can't emphasize this enough). When it fires on all 8 cylinders though, it's amazing and unlike most other games. Demands a place in my collection, even if it only serves a very specific occasion or group.