Commander: Conquest of the Americas is a pretty big step up from East India Company. While I found East India Company to be fun for a while, it did get rather repetitive. Commander: Conquest of the Americas has most of what East India Company had, plus a good bit more, making it the superior game in almost every regard (the only reason to get East India Company, that I can think of, is if you really love the theme).

Both games are pretty simple though. Commander has a bit more to offer here, but it is still a relatively simple trading game. You get to form fleets, set up trade routs, and also develop your colonies, though non of it requires a lot of though. It mainly boils down to finding a few good colony spots (ones with multiple good resources) and then ship colonists to these, build the buildings that enhance their production and send the goods back home (and for some resources you also want to refine them).

The battles are pretty interesting, going for a somewhat realistic rout. I'm not expert at naval battles of the time period, but they do feel relatively believeable.

Overall, should you get the games? As for East India Company, the answer is probably no. As for commander, sure, but get it on a sale, as it does not seem to be exactly what you are looking for, or see if someone in the classifieds thread has a bundle key to offer you (both games have by the way been bundled)

Thanks a lot, that's exactly what I wanted to know :) There is a nice sale on CDP.pl (GOG's sister company but for polish market only) and those games cost 6.99 PLN (~2.31 USD) each so that's a pretty good discount I think ;) Thanks to your suggestion I'll get Commander only, theme of the other game is largely irrelevant for me so there is no point in getting it.