New Corp Order

In a world where corporations are more powerful than countries, New Corp Order allows you to act as the mastermind behind the media companies that want to control us. In the game, you are trying to gain control of other companies and have the most points scored by the end of the game (when the conglomerate deck is depleted).

Whilst this seems like an engrossing theme, unfortunately New Corp Order doesn’t quite deliver. I really like themes that poke fun at the corporate world, but I didn’t really feel like the theme shone through here. And as much as I like the use of the corporate world, all the corporate lingo words in the game can be confusing (like what even is a conglomerate?) when there are a lot of them. I do like the art in the game though, it’s very crisp and clean. Anyway, enough initial thoughts from me, what’s New Corp Order like as a solo game?

Commencing World Domination

The game is made up of a number of components: Company tiles (including guerilla marketing, broadcast networks and print media), the conglomerate deck, agents (a set of cubes), consultant cards and secret objective cards (there are six types). If that sounds like a lot of similar sounding components, that’s because there are. In a solo game you don’t use the consultant cards, which is a shame since it adds a bit of flavour to the game and some additional actions. There’s more incentive to play a multiplayer game to use the unique abilities of the consultants.

As it goes with a solo game, you are playing against an Automa, in this case the ODS (Omni Dyne System, or something like that). As much as the rulebook (which is a chunky boy as it’s in two languages) tries to strike fear into your heart about the ODS, it’s just a dark grey cube. It’s mixed in with the other agent cubes. I feel like disembodied automas are better than one’s represented by inanimate objects, as this grey cube is not intimidating me. At least with the disembodied automas there’s a level of imagination with them. But the grey cube is relevant as it moves from left to right and will prioritise taking its action in the column below and scan columns to its right if it can’t take an action in the column below.

To start the game, the company tiles are laid out in a 4×3 grid (normally 4×4 for 3-4 players) and the secret objective linked to the unused company tiles are discarded. You assign yourself and the Automa two colours of agents (I have red and blue while the Automa has brown and beige) and you randomly put an agent on each tile (half yours, half the ODS’). Throughout the game you acquire more agents through the conglomerate deck (the face up coloured cards) which can be used to infiltrate and take over other companies. You have a display of four, and you have the option of taking cards from the face down pile as well. These agents are added to your HQ and can be activated and used to take over companies. There isn’t a limit to how many agents you can activate at once. You can’t have your and the ODS’ agents on the same company tile (e.g. my blue agents and the ODS’ brown agents can’t exist on the same tile).

There are three key actions in the game: plot, infiltrate and take over. The actions operate a little bit differently in a solo game as well, simplifying things a bit. The plot and infiltrate actions are taken together.

• Plot – take two conglomerate cards
• Infiltrate – place agents (of one colour) in your HQ and then place the corresponding agents on a company with agents of the same colour (i.e. put your new blue agents on a company that already has blue agents)
• Take over – activate agents in your HQ (turning them on their side) and move them to another adjacent company tile, ensuring that there is at least one agent on the tile it left. In the case where you move onto a rival company you compare the number of agents. If you have more, you have successfully taken over their company and you remove their agents. You bring their agent to your HQ for scoring (as it counts as a share).

After a successful takeover you activate the company’s ability at the bottom left of the tile. Each company type has a unique ability and allows you a bonus which mostly has to do with reactivating your agents or messing with other people’s.

The ODS has a priority list of actions which would probably take a bit of memorising of where it’ll try to take over and infiltrate first based on its secret objective and companies they already own (where their agents started). First, the ODS tries to take over, and if it can’t it’ll infiltrate and plot. The ODS can only take conglomerate cards that match their colour and you can only take cards in your colour. If your respective colours aren’t available, you have to discard those cards. You only refill the face up display once all the cards have been taken.

There are quite big words for simple actions but it can be kind of funny to start taking over with a hoard of little cubes. As the game progresses you and the ODS acquire companies, which is the main way you score points. Though the limited AI of the ODS means it doesn’t make the best decisions and isn’t the most challenging of opponents.

Facing Insolvency

For a game about corporate domination, you don’t actually need to take over everything. It’s more about shares and how many you have at the end of the game. As well as acquiring companies that align with your secret objectives. In this game I would be prioritising Online Marketing and Guerilla Marketing for my secret objectives. The agents in your HQ become your shares in different companies once the conglomerate deck has been exhausted as well as enemy agents you’ve acquired. New Corp Order is a strange mix of simple in its gameplay, but complicated in its scoring. If you have the most shares, you score 2 points per company you have of that type (which is based on conglomerate cards and agents in HQ). You get 1 point per company if you have the second most shares (which doesn’t apply in single or two player games). Then repeat the scoring process for companies that match your secret objective symbol. In a multiplayer game you also score based on consultants you acquire throughout a game.

I definitely think there’s fun to be had in a multiplayer game, but I think the solo mode is unfortunately a pass. When you don’t enjoy moving cubes around that much, the 80 card deck feels very long and I lost any investment (badum tssh, corporate pun) I had in the game. There’s potential for depth with the different actions you can take and keeping an eye on other people’s shares (and messing with them) but I think that’s reserved for multiplayer games. The ODS is more of a corporate drone. Use it to learn the game, and then play with your friends (or corporate enemies, it’s up to you).