Indonesia

Indonesia is the sort of game in which every business ambition seems sensible until somebody across the table starts extracting value from it. The rules are easy without being childish — the rulebook gets a comfortable B+ — and what follows is a clean mind game, full of carnage that feels entirely earned.

Play moves through seasons, and with five players those seasons disappear fast. That brings urgency and leaves no room for lazy moves, but it also makes the game a little less filling than I want it to be: a fine plate of ribs rather than the thick steak its system promises.

Luck does not arrive to rescue you or betray you; the players do that themselves, with economic blows that flatten plans and would-be tycoon dreams. You will miscount, you will butcher a rule, and somebody opposite will already have found the angle that punishes you. That is the whole point. It hurts properly.

For players who know and love hard economic games, Indonesia remains tremendously strong: a clear ten as a design, with a satisfying length and interaction that gives nobody a free pass. It needs a table willing to wrestle with it, though, rather than merely admire it.

Updated session

The later plays did not alter my regard for the design, but they did alter my willingness to put it on the table again. The map and the wretched components are increasingly hard work to read and handle, and the whole group is feeling that fatigue; the game still impresses, but it may end up on the deep shelf precisely because it asks so much patience of the table.