Unpub 3View: East India Company

As we head towards Unpub 3, I’m going to start previewing the games people will experience at the event.

One of the games I am most looking forward to having at Unpub 3 is East India Company, by designer Paul Owen. I had a chance to play this at WBC and had an awesome time with it. Since then, by reading Paul's blog "Man OverBoard," I hear the game has gone through many changes and picked up new fans after it's appearance at the Congress of Gamers Unpub ProtoZone.

Paul took some time out his schedule to fill out our 3View survey to give us a little deeper glance into his little game of sailing ships on the high seas, pirates, profit and loss, loans, dividends, interest … money and adventure in one boardgaming experience!

What type of game is East India Company? It's a pick-up and deliver game.

East India Company...started as an interplanetary mining game until the theme morphed to 18th century mercantilism. It was influenced by "Merchants of Venus."

To your knowledge, What do other people find most interesting about East India Company? Being faced with "business-like" decisions: whether to take a loan, whether to invest in a ship, etc.

What advice would you give to players attempting East India Company for the first time?  Be first to the high-profit goods, which might mean taking out a loan and buying a faster ship. But don't over-borrow and don't over-invest. Every decision has to be profitable.