East India Companies is a competitive deck-builder where you take control of your shipping empire. Your fleet of white-winged sailing ships are the collateral you utilize to develop and build your strategy, ensuring your victory against your merchant competitors. Maritime portraitures of the 17th through 19th centuries give this deck builder a historic feel, and allow for a more intuitive notion of card/effect as play progresses.
Playing in similar fashion to Dominion, each player begins the game with a starter deck of ships (currency) and waterfront property (victory points). Leveraging their Fleet cards, players determine the best cards and combos from 15 stacks of 25 available with which to best build up victory points until such time as one of several end game scenarios are triggered. After a medium learning curve, a four player game should progress over the course of about 75 minutes. Some game mechanics do allow for player vs. player attacks, but will depend on what stacks the randomizer brings onto the table.
The goal of the game is to have the most waterfront property and Trade Routes in your deck once the final round is played. Any player may trigger the end game condition, but may want to consider what their opponents have been doing over the course of the game.