I’m really enjoying East India Company at the moment. The game is complicated on the surface, but much of it really starts to play itself after a while. You can set up automatic trade routes between your European base and trading ports in the Far East. Your designated trade fleet will beetle back and forth carrying goods till their heart’s content and you can sit back and watch the money roll in. Well at least for a little while near the start of the game’s campaign. Eventually this jovial veneer of civil competition between the various nations’ East India Companies becomes a mite more cutthroat.
At the moment I think I’ve got more warships than cargo ships as I desperately try to hang onto my lucrative spice trade routes in the face of an aggressive alliance between the Spanish and French companies. The war is slowly gobbling up all my profits as I work hard to replace lost ships, cargo and troops as well as upgrading the defences in my foreign ports. I think I’ll be bankrupt long before I’m finally defeated.
As an aside playing East India Company has got me thinking about an idea for a computer game that I would like to see developed. I don’t know how much mass appeal it would have, but I’m thinking of a sort of cross between Elite, Silent Hunter and East India Company. It would be set sometime in the age of sail, probably between 1600 and 1800, and the player would be the master and commander of a sailing ship operating in a dynamically generated world economy based partly on historical lines. They could act as a pirate against the Spanish treasure fleets in the Caribbean. Sail as a privateer for the great nations of Europe, or be a humble trader trying to strike it rich by importing goods from far flung places. They could also undertake missions, fight in famous battles and struggle against unrelenting storms.
Naturally the player could spend their hard earned gold on upgrades, better crew and a better ship to make life easier and more profitable. They could play from first person standing on the 3D deck of their ship, or hovering with a birds eye view above the action much like in Silent Hunter.
What are you waiting for developers, get writing, and as I came up with the idea I want 10% of the gross like Alex Guinness.
GreyKodiak 
I need to get you a sail boat….