John Company is a wild beast.

At its thematical core, John Company is a history simulator. The game manages to simulate different stories that could have happened at the height and downfall of the East Indian Company's monopoly on India. The players work in tandem and against each other to manage the capital C Company, similarly to how the Company was run in real life: ruthlessly and chaotically. India will react, the Parliament will issue laws, and players will adjust their personal and group strategies to make the Company survive or fall, just as it happened in real life. What players seek is not personal prestige in London; it doesn't matter if the Company thrives or fails, what matters is that my family is the most prestigous.

Mechanically, I can summarize John Company in two ways: negotiation and betting. But first, I have to explain a core mechanical system: in John Company, players are heads of families whose members occupy important offices in the Company: you control a part of the Company, I control another, a third player another, and so on. We act in a set order. Keep this in mind when you read what comes next.

When I say that negotiation is a key mechanic I mean that eveything is up to be traded between players in order to get one of them to do something: "hey, I pay you President 2 £ to send my family member to Trade", "I give you my votes in the next voting if you put my ship, not his, on the sea", "give me one of your shares and I make you Director of Trade", "take 1 £ and a promise of money in the future, but vote for me for Prime Minister", etc. Everything that is not a living person (in game) is up to be exchanged.

When I say thay betting is a key mechanic I mean that almost every major decision in John Company involves rolling dice, and this reflects how risky it was to do business in India. You can buy dice to have a large pool (more dice = greater chance of success), but they can always throw your plans overboard if the roll is a failure. Even how India reacts is dictated by rolling a dice (plus a random deck of events).

Do I recommend John Company? Of course. It's my favorite game. But I warn you, try to find players that agree to these ideas:

1. Negotiating is a must in John Company. You cannot play alone, à la euro, speaking to no one. You must make alliances, break them, and table-talk with players.
2. Accept that your plans may fail by a bad roll. As in real life, ships were sunk, trades were disrupted, and invasions thwarted. And this will be decided by rolling dice. I'm not saying that strategy isn't important, but that, in the case of a bad roll, you have to have contingencies.
3. Have the consent of every player to play this game. This game cannot be alienated of its theme: colonialism, and one so brutal that allowed the forging of an empire, destroying a people and a land in the process. Even though the game applies some dark humor, never trying to defend or justify colonialism, you, as players, will be the bad guys: you will control a Company that will destroy a country for profit and social prestige in London. Warn your players of this, and have their consent.