Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/55952/greed-incorporated
Publisher: Splotter (2009)
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“Greed is good” – Gordon Gekko
Published by Splotter in 2009, Greed Incorporated sets 3-5 players in the world of high finance and economics as corporate investors or corporate raiders who are, in my words, actively trying crash companies in order to get a big-time severance pay and use this cash to buy fancy executive toys (ie. Private jets, or Premier League football clubs).
Thus, unlike in other economic games, players do not win with the highest cash, but rather; the most victory points!
By most comparisons, the game is very rare, and can easily fetch around the £60 – £150 range on ebay or boardgamegeek; but does it’s rarity and high price really equate to a good game?
Let’s find out…
Played over approximately 10 rounds (dependent on number of players), players will run one, or multiple companies; and try to increase their respective companies cash or actively try to trash a company and walk away with a big-time severance pay.
To do this, players will play 1 card per round; this card will affect the trend and market price for up to 11 different types of goods (ie: Land, Sand, Cotton, etc).
Prices will be adjusted, dependent upon their trending position (ie: -3, or +2).
An example:
Some of the asset cards from Greed Inc
On the example image it shows a few asset cards; and an icon at the bottom shows the change in trends, which in turn will affect the price of the goods.
The main market board in Greed Incorporated
Once players have played a card, players will bid on the asset cards; adding it it to their corporations’ placard. This placard will track up to 4 assets, the people within the company’s structure (ie: CEO, CFO, COO) and 3 piles of cash:
- New income,
- Last year’s income, and
- Free cash
With exception of free cash, a player may not spend or use New income or Last year’s income.
Interestingly, these 3 piles are a mechanic in the game; where if your company did not make more income than last year – somebody will be fired. It doesn’t matter if you broke-even. The only thing that matters is pure profit!
Indeed, it is when you can’t make a profit that someone will take a fall; during this process, a player may walk away from anywhere between 40% to a maximum of 80% of the company’s free cash.
When a company does crash, payouts will occur and a corporate restructure will take place; meaning that a player may lose control of their company and a new owner will be decided.
Planning out who will control a company when it falls can sometimes be an interesting decision: Do you want to remain in control of a poorly run company when it crashes? Or, do you want to offload it so that you can funnel that cash and efforts elsewhere?
Walking away with cash is always tempted. Indeed, a player’s private cash is the only cash that can be used to purchase VP cards (ie: Private jets, etc); and more interestingly, you can only buy 1 VP card per round. So timing your company’s crash becomes important, you can get VP early; or wait to get VP when they get better.
So, after about 10 rounds – whomever has the most VP is the winner of the game.
Components
The component quality is very basic, but gets the job done.
Paper-money, lots of cubes, big-boot markers and a few wooden dollar symbols are all you seem to get.
There are a bunch of cubes which mark all the different 11 goods, and their respective trend (ie: Land could be trending: -3, 0, +1, +2) and are placed on the main game board, as described earlier.
Rule book
Serviceable rule book, seems to explain most actions quite well; be sure to read the Errata.
The rules also includes a grid which is used to calculate the severance pay for players who crashed their companies, split into two columns: 40% and 20%. However, I recommend writing a simple Javascript app that will do all the necessary calculations for you; and display all figures required.
My thoughts of the game, and why I eventually sold it
Having played Greed Incorporated about 5 times, I’m in two minds about the game.
What I enjoyed:
The theme, negotiation gamesmanship are all enjoyable. The speed at which the game moves a long can be quick, or slow; dependent upon deals. There is little AP; as all items are public (except perhaps a player’s private cash); so you know what people can produce and all you have to consider is what deal works for you and your multiple companies.
“Growth! Growth! Holy growth!”
I really liked the mechanic / narrative that your company must always make a profit, a not simply good enough to break even, you got to beat last year’s expectations!
I even liked how it didn’t even matter if your company has got over a billion in your free cash; shareholders are only happy if this quarter if you beat expectations.
Bill Maher highlighted the idea of “growth at any cost” in a 2016 video, which I think neatly reflects this narrative.
“In corporate America, the stock market is the tail that wags the dog — growth! growth! holy growth is the only thing that ever matters. Better than last quarter! Beat expectations! Eat more hamburgers!”
url: https://youtu.be/y4X3OSd6HzY?t=209
I also enjoyed the 18XX style trading mechanic, where you could run up to a maximum of 3 companies and then trade between the companies (ie: Buy Land for $1, then Buy it back again for $100).
What I did not enjoy
The game is incredibly linear. The story, narrative, flow of the game is always the same. It has only really got 1 main gimmick, and once you’ve seen it; there is very little reason to play the game.
Despite the idea that you are trying intentionally to crash companies, there never seems to be enough time to do this; and the number of new companies to establish is strictly limited. This means players need to balance building an engine verses building points, and rarely do you get options to do either.
There is this notion within the game that speaks to “we want you to crash companies” but then on the other side give you limited tools to accomplish this goal.
Further, for novice players its very easy to eliminate yourself if you crash your only company and have not enough cash to buy a new company and have to wait around to establish a new one.
Pros:
- Strong theme with strong economic and financial ties.
- Can play fast/quick; but is dependent upon player’s time for deal-making.
- The game feels like it has something to say about its theme
Cons:
- The game is pretty rubbish at 3 players; you NEED to play it with all five players, the more actors mean more opportunities for deals.
- Feels like there is not enough time to build your engine
- The game setup is always the same, and other than the variation of the position of the numbered cards within the brackets (10-20, 20-30), there is no modular setup.
- The game’s narrative is always the same. Prices go up, eventually they fall.
I feel there are better games about acquisition out there. Acquire is better, some of the lighter 18XX games are better.
Is it worth buying?
- Only if your a collector. It certainly (as of time of writing) holds its value.
- Only if you want to complete your Splotter collection
- Only if you like economic games with negotiation
Is it worth playing?
Yes.
Play the game. Its worth it, just to understand the flow of money in the game and what the game’s storyline is.
Overall thoughts
I enjoyed the game, I did like its narrative and trading and negotiation elements. What I didn’t like is how every game felt the same and the decisions you made, the story flow of the game was very linear. But I guess it has to be that way for the game to weave the story it’s trying to tell.
Bottom line: Play the game. I just am not sure if its worth buying it, unless you are a collector or need to squash the bug that wants to know if the hype lives up to the delivery.
Overall: 7/10
Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/55952/greed-incorporated