What’s more relaxing than setting sail on the sea and taking a cannon ball to the face?  We’ve managed to get our hands on the preview build of Nitro Games’ East India Company, which feels like a cross between Civilization, Colonisation and Empire: Total War.  The full game will offer a campaign map, trade lanes, colonial expansion and real time naval battles, but our preview copy only came with three battles to try and a single tutorial.

Each of the battles provided was practically the same, giving  you a selection of ships and tasking you with wiping out the enemy fleet.  To do so, you’ll need to tactically manoeuvre your craft, select the appropriate ammunition and then let rip.  Depending on your choice, you’ll target the crew, the hull or the sails, each has their particular advantage and the damage inflicted is reflected in real time.  Your mast will crumble, your men die and eventually the ship will sink in typical dramatic fashion and all in wondrous 3D

Anyone with half a brain will instantly draw comparisons with Empire: Total War, and while the later has slightly more detail on its ships, East India Company still manages to hold its own.  The sea and ships react realistically, the game’s physics are well programmed and when you have two ships slugging it out, it’s extremely satisfying to watch.

It may be a bit slow paced for the adrenaline junkies out there, but what we saw seemed to indicate that strategising your approach and attack actually paid off.  You can select all and just work your way through each enemy ship in turn, but chances are you’ll end up with a higher rate of casualties and less ships to take on your next encounter.

It’s just a shame we were restricted to ‘skirmish-style’ battles.  It would have been nice to see how the single player campaign works in relation to other titles, but we’ll have to wait for our review build.  From a combat-perspective, Nitro Games have seemed to hit the nail on the head and it looks as though East India Company will provide gamers with a solid alternative to The Creative Assembly’s title.

East India Company is currently scheduled for release this summer on PC and until then your can whet your appetite with the screenshot gallery below.

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