AFnord: [...]
East India Company: Fun, but it gets repetitive after a while. Its "sequel" Commander: Conquest of the Americas solved most of the issues that this game had. Worth playing though[...]
DrIstvaan: Is it a decent game then? Being a long-time fan of trading games, I've played its demo version, and I was instantly turned off by the monotonousness of sea battles (which I would have skipped gladly, if it weren't mandatory in the tutorial AND if playing them out yourself weren't a
requirement for the advancement of your captains). Also, I've read in a review in a local game magazine that the game as a whole is annoyingly boring.
You can skip all sea battles actually. That of course has the same disadvantage as skipping battles in a Total War game (i.e. there is a fare amount of luck involved in regards to if you win or not). I've beaten East India Company without playing a single sea battle. I don't know if I would really want to play through an entire campaign again, but I don't mind booting up the game and play through 1/3-½ the campaign. It really could do with some more variety, but what is in there is good.
AFnord: ' But is it an independent company, or a company that has to listen to its shareholders
Licurg: Wikipedia says "Private":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyro_Studios Ah, thanks for the info. Then they are about as Indie as Team 17, it would seem (i.e. could be considered indie by some definitions).