Her Majesty's Companies

The Monarchy's power diminishes rapidly, strangled by the avarice of the Merchant Houses. Pirates threaten the home island, the colonies teeter on the edge of revolt and revolution, and all the while the Merchants amass coin, train soldiers, and jockey for position to seize the throne.

Take control of one such Merchant House: weather storms, repel pirates, reap vast profits from trade and soldiery, and position yourself for the throne, but be careful to pay lip service to defending the Monarchy lest the Realm crumble to pieces too small to be worth your rule.


Each Player controls one or more Houses: buying, shipping, and unloading goods between eight colonies and the home isle while also deploying soldiers to keep the fractious colonies from rebelling.. When the Queen runs out of money, the player with the most wealth seizes the crown and wins the game. However, if the home island is ever conquered by pirates or rebels or if all the colonies assert their independence, the Empire collapses and EVERYONE loses.

There are never enough sailors or soldiers to man your ships fully - do you launch your whole fleet under-strength or leave ships rotting at dock and hope the others' improved speed and resilience will make up for it? Do you dock where your trade goods are worth the most for immediate profit or do you head for ports less traveled to fill your holds faster for the next journey? Do you invade a disgruntled colony for easy, safe profit or do you accept your rival's bribe and send your soldiers into danger suppressing the incipient rebellion at her colony?

The basic game is easily playable in under an hour while hard-core gamers can leverage optional rules to transform it into a three hour grudge-match!