John Company: Second Edition

The second edition supports 1–6. Three to six use the selected scenario; solo and two-player games add the Crown opponent. Scenarios set the starting position, final turn, and possible Deregulation. Use the 1710 scenario to learn rather than importing first-edition procedures.

Each turn runs London Season, Family, Hiring, Company Operation, Bonuses, Revenue, Events in India, Parliament Meets, then Upkeep and Refresh. Skip London Season on turn one. Scenario instructions and passed laws can modify particular procedures.

Keep family cash, Company Balance, and each office treasury separate. Family cash funds investments, retirements, and negotiation; office cash can only be spent by that office. The Chairman can take debt and allocate Company Balance to other office treasuries, rather than treating it as personal money.

Family actions enlist writers or officers, purchase luxuries/shipyards/workshops, or seek a share. Repeating the action already bearing your opportunity marker normally allows two uses. Seek Share enters the Stock Exchange first; Company debt subsequently converts rightmost waiting members into Court shares while reducing debt.

Hire vacant offices in ascending numbered order, using each specified supervisor and candidate pool. Hiring your own family normally requires verbal consent from every other player in that pool; Chairman election is exempt. Election needs support from a strict majority of shares, with the former Chairman resolving a failed majority process.

Operate offices along the red ribbon and skip vacant offices. For a check, spend office resources, subtract penalty dice, and use the lowest rolled die: 1–2 succeeds, 3–4 fails with possible retries, and 5–6 is catastrophic, normally removing the officeholder and ending that office’s actions. Actions need an effect or chance of success.

Each President orders their own, Commander, and Governors’ operations; one position finishes before the next starts. Trade follows connected open orders from the home port, using ships to fill orders and raise Company Balance. The President and owners of writers actually placed gain separate personal income. Each President may trade successfully at most once per turn.

Revenue pays Company expenses, checks expectations, then allows the Chairman to pay dividends. Emergency loans and missed expectations may lower Standing. Storms and Indian events then alter the situation, Parliament votes on a law/policy, and families pay prize upkeep at turn end or remove unpaid prizes and lose their points.

London Season starts with attrition: roll for each office and add fatigue, with an extra one for the Chairman. A result of at least five creates a pensioner. Spend family cash to retire pensioners to scoring prizes; total retirement spending sets prestige-card order. Pensioners cannot be kept indefinitely after that Season.

Finish after the scenario’s final turn or when Standing reaches its leftmost space; legislated failure finishes resolving that vote first. Stop negotiations, calling promises, and ordinary blackmail. Score power, then shares/workshops: surviving shares score positively; failed shares lose points and workshops score one each. Survival adds final attrition/retirement without prestige cards; failure resolves a random failure card. Break final ties by windows, then Prime Minister order.