Despite the existence of multiple campaigns and the goals assigned within those campaigns, EiC is really about money and port control. Since you’re running a company, it may seem obvious that you want to make as much money as possible, but it’s easy to get caught up in all the different ways to spend it, buying ships, upgrading ports, and, of course, the trade goods. You’ll learn quickly that it’s important to keep enough cash on hand to handle your port trading activities before you concern yourself with buying assets and building.

At the start of the game you have a single home port tied to your company’s country of origin (Britain, France, the Holy Roman Empire, etc.). Although, in theory you’re operating a trading company, there’s really no appreciable difference in the game between the company and its host government. Your home port has a variety of export goods that are found there and in no other. Except for a few pirate-controlled ports, every other port in the game, most of which feature an extremely profitable main trade item (MTI) in addition to more generic ones, is open for you or your rival companies to enter and use for trade.

Because the object is to quash your competition, a huge element of the game lies in controlling as many ports as you can (and can afford) by capturing them through force. Controlling ports means that only your ships and those of the companies with which you’ve established pacts or alliances can enter. Given the need for your ships to frequently resupply at ports en route to their destination and the fact that each MTI is only available at two or three different locations, choosing which ports to control is a vital component of any winning strategy.

Sadly, there’s no action or tactical component to port captures. You sail into a port with your fleet of ships (preferably loaded with marines instead of goods), assess your chances of success and, if you deem the risk to materials and men worth it, you attack. Attacks are resolved instantly and, if you win, you’ll have exclusive access to that port. It works adequately, but the lack of any graphic depiction of the results makes it feel a bit tacked on. Also, with the exception of a star rating (1-4), there’s no way to gauge how difficult a port is to take without putting together a fleet and attacking it. True, you can back out of an attack if you see the odds will be stacked against you, but by that point you’ve already committed significant time and resources to the task. Realism aside, it would be nice if you could get a more sound notion of a port’s defensive strength before you put in that kind of effort.

Once you control a port, however, you gain benefits above and beyond shutting out your competition and having a surefire place for your ships to restock. There are various buildings you can build and upgrade in each port you control (your home port is maxed out at the start of the game): Better trading houses give you better deals on goods purchases, a better shipwright lets you repair your ships and build new ones, a garrison provides for more defensive troops should another trading company try to wrest the port from your grasp, etc. The only catch is that the more you build up a port, the more it costs you to maintain it, so it’s important to make sure any infrastructure in which you invest will pay off for you over the long haul and not end up as an albatross around your neck.

With just the three categories of trade items (export, MTIs, and basic), the game’s actual trade model is reasonably simple to grasp, if difficult to fully exploit. There’s a clear supply and demand dynamic at work in East India Company and the release day patch makes it relatively simple, if not efficient, to sort out where you can achieve the most profit for a trade item. When the game starts, importing spices from Bombay may be a highly profitable venture. But the more spices you bring in, the less a profit it draws year over year. Conversely, if you go a few years without importing a good (or importing it but storing it in a Warehouse), demand for it starts to rise again. The biggest profits are largely reserved for the MTIs: tea, spices, silk, diamonds, gold, furs, ivory, and porcelain. The trading model works well enough, but if you’re looking for business-related decisions to make beyond finding ways to maximize trade profit, you’ll be disappointed. Ultimately, success in EiC is about having the right amount of ships with the right amount of cargo space, adequately protecting those ships, and then buying low and selling high.