Economy & Events

This scenario will include a few additional mechanisms to address the unique economic aspects that this scenario discusses.

Available Credit

The other large impact that the EIC had on Britain (and Europe as a whole) is the Credit Crisis that occured in the early 1770s. This high amount of debt in both the Government and the Company was a large motivation for the Tea Act.

The thought is that there will be some limited amount of Credit that is available for all players:

• Firms
• Company
• Government

Any time that any of these reach into debt, it will pull from this stack of available credit.

The initial pressure will be low, as there will seem to be plenty of credit. However, as it starts to run down, there will be incentive for all of the Firms, Company and Government to stop using as much of the credit pool. This implementation is simple and perhaps a bit boardgame-y. However, the pressure is designed to lightly simulate the credit crisis that Britain experienced in the 1770s.

Note

Similar to India, sustaing a military presence is what will cause the most debt. This would follow suit in America. Historically, the Seven Years War/French and Indian War doubled the national debt in Britain.

Backstop for Firms

The scenario wants (at least) one firm throughout the scenario, involved in the 13 Colonies. The firms in John Company are fragile and without additional credit (workshops or Company shares in good standing), any firm with a bad trade roll or two can shut down.

By allowing the firms this additional investment opportunity, it will hopefully keep a good percentage of the (unlucky) firms solvent during the initial turns of the scenario (if not the entire scenario). To make sure that this doesn’t eliminate the ability for players to negotiate investment, the penalty for needing credit to keep functioning should be significant.

Government Budget

The British Government implemented the tariffs to try to pay for the costs of the military, judges, clergy and other government offices in the Colonies. To simulate this, the money from the tariffs will be the income to pay for the military and debts occurred during gameplay. The administrative costs will be represented by additional tokens, but will be counted like debt.

In a similar fashion to the costs of the Company, each cardboard token should represent a cost of £1 for the Colonial budget of the Government, either debt, army or administratino.

Anytime the Government needs money, it can takes some of the publicly available credit. Unlike the Company or Firms, there is no different “emergency loan” difference.

Firms (in America)

The trade orders in America will have less financial value than the orders in India (typically £3-4). Tariffs will also impact the Firms, both in closing orders and directly reducing revenue from their trades. In addition, the firms will also be competing with each other, as well as smugglers, for the orders on trades.

To account for this lower income, the following mechanisms are being considered to provide an income boost:

Tea

The tea that comes from the Tea Auction provides a small income increase. Tea will be sold per region, getting a profit per order in that region. When selling tea, the unrest in that region will be subtracted from the die.

This incentivizes a couple of things:

1. This encourages firms to trade more in a specific region, providing character to the colonial landscape.
2. This makes selling Tea a risk/reward scenario: The Firms can profit from it by adding more risk. The available credit backstop means that the Firms can lean into more risk without defaulting.
3. Tea is also taxed, meaning that the Colonial Office also benefits from the sale.

This creates a “loyalist” tension among the firms to add Tea to try to raise additional funding for themselves and the Government. This bonus would transfer from the Firms to the Company when Tea Regulation is enabled.

Plantations

Another thought is to add an additional enterprise: plantations. Plantations would be associated with a specific region or commodity, gaining a bonus when trade takes place there, and being an expense when trade doesn’t take place there. Plantations are strictly financial, and would not provide votes or other benefits.

Having plantations in America would invest players more in that map, as when certain orders are closed, it would affect Plantation owners directly. Plantations could tie in nicely with some of the specific mercantile regulations available (Tobacco Act, Iron Act, etc).

Warning

Similar to the concept of Tea Houses, we need to make sure that the weight of the extra rules and components is worth it.

Land Companies

To provide financial incentive and further add trade orders, the government could vote in Land Companies to allow the military to attack the Natives and French in Ohio and/or Mississippi. Loot markers (or possibly plantations) could be the direct reward for doing so, with indirect financial incentives being the additional trade orders that would become available.

To found the Land Company, it would also pull from the Available Credit, when established.

Closed Orders and Unrest

Similar to India, orders can be closed and unrest gets added to a region in the 13 Colonies:

• A closed order represents a boycott against British goods or the lack of economic incentive or stability to trade there.
• Unrest within the 13 colonies represents the political instability rising against the British Empire. There are a number of actions that can generate unrest:
  • Tariffs and other unpopular laws being passed.
    • Customs collection.
  • Natives attacking without proper defense.

Unrest does the following:

• Tea becomes more expensive to trade.
• The possibility of a revolt, whose strength is determined by the total unrest in all regions.

The Event System

This event system provides India with “a mind of its own”, one that both reacts to and acts independently from the actions by the Company. That independence is represented both by the actions of the Elephant, but also the region listed on the back of each event card.

In America, the goal is to provide a similar feel, but hopefully one that does not provide the mechanical complications that the Elephant does: Empires don’t necessarily need to grow in the same way. That said, the level of tension in America should feel similar to that in India:

• The 13 colonies both supporting and rebelling against British authority.
• The Native American tribes both trading and conflicting with the colonists on the Western edges.
• The French and Spanish colonies causing battles and tension, particularly on the northern and southern fronts.

Warning

This is one of the most challenging areas to design and the area that is (currently) the weakest in concept and implementation.

The Elephant

In India, the Elephant shows where potential conflict could arise and who is the target. As the Company controls more of India, there is more opportunity for the Elephant to target a region under Company control, due to the rules around the direction the Elephant points.

The current thinking is that the most recently passed Act or Tariff would indicate which regions are likely to be impacted by unrest or tension from the colonists (and perhaps the Natives). Border disputes between the colonies did occur, but were relatively small in scope compared to the battles between the various Indian kingdoms.

The system would also need to generate attacks from the west, north and south against the colonies, causing additional needed military presence. These events would be driven completely by some sort of event deck, similar to the “Foreign Invasion” card.