Teach the Game

A script to teach Indonesia at the table — how you win, the board, a year, the end, every way to make money and what each piece is for.

How you win

“Indonesia, as its economy grows from rice fields to oil. Each of us is a tycoon: we start plantations and shipping lines, ship goods to growing cities, and buy and merge companies. Three eras, three to four hours. Whoever ends with the most money wins — there are no points.”

You need rupiah. It comes from three places:

• Production companies — plantations of rice, spice, rubber, siap saji and oil earn money for every good they sell to a city;
• Shipping companies — ships earn 5 for every good they carry, for every ship on the way;
• Mergers — selling your companies to the highest bidder, or buying others cheaply.

The loop: take companies (free, but you need a free slot), operate them every year to earn money and grow, research to do more, and merge at the right moment and price.

The board

• The archipelago — provinces of land areas and the sea areas between them. Plantations fill land areas; ships sit in sea areas; cities are built on the coast.
• Company start markers show where this era’s companies can start. Each has a deed: the province, the good, and for shipping lines the most ships per era (A/B/C).
• Province symbols show what each province will offer in eras A, B and C — cities, crops, shipping. → Map symbols
• Cities start small (size 1) and grow when they get every good on the map.

Your player aid holds the five R&D tracks (Bid, Slots, Mergers, Expansion, Hull), your Bank box and the year’s phases. Your money stays behind your screen.

A year

Three eras (A, B, C), each lasting as many years as it takes. Every year has seven phases:

1. New era — only when the era’s companies are used up: everyone builds a city, the next era’s deeds go on the map.
2. Bid for turn order — one bid each, in order of play, multiplied by your Bid research. The money goes to your Bank: gone for spending, still yours at the end.
3. Mergers — announce a merger of two companies; everyone who could own the result bids.
4. Acquisitions — take free companies, one per round, if you have a free slot.
5. Research — move one R&D marker up a step (or someone else’s Hull).
6. Operations — one company each, in turn: ships expand; plantations sell, earn and expand.
7. City growth — cities that got every good they wanted grow one size.

Show Operations before reciting the phases. Rehearse delivering one rice over one ship leg: the producer receives 20 and pays 5 to the shipping owner. Now mark the city’s demand and the ship’s used capacity. Before operating the next production company, reset the ship’s capacity, not the city’s demand (rulebook p. 7).

→ Gameplay · Mergers · Operations

How the game ends

In the New era phase, when era C would end: there are no C deeds left to take, or the ones left are all the same type. Operating earnings from the last year are doubled. Count everything — cash, Bank and the doubled earnings. Most money wins; on a tie, the player earlier in the order of play.

Ways to score

There are no victory points — money is the score.

What each resource is for

Resource	Why you need it	How you get it	How you use it
Rupiah	It is the score, and it pays for bids.	Selling goods, shipping fees, merger payouts; 100 to start.	Turn-order bids, merger bids, paid expansion.
Slots	Each company you own needs one; a merged company uses one.	Research the Slots track (1 → 5).	Taking companies in Acquisitions, bidding on mergers.
Ships	Every good reaches a city by ship.	Take a shipping deed, then expand in Operations.	Chains of one line’s ships carry goods to cities.
Goods	They are your plantations’ income.	Take a production deed; expand after selling.	Sold to cities in Operations.
Siap saji	The best food price (35).	Merge a rice and a spice company in era B or C.	Sold like any good; merges only with siap saji.
Cities	They buy the goods.	City cards in each New era; growth.	Size = how many of each good it buys a year.
R&D	It limits everything you do.	One step each year, free.	Bid multiplier, slots, merger size, expansion, ship capacity.
Bank	Turn order.	Your turn-order bids.	Counts at the end; never spent.

Teaching tips

• Teach money and the two kinds of company first, demonstrate an operation, then the seven phases in order and the map’s quirks (arrows, seas, Maluku).
• Skip Mergers in year one — nobody can announce one yet. Explain it when someone researches it.
• Say it twice: plantations must sell every good they can, even at a loss, and a sold-out company must expand.
• More from tutorials and reviews: Tips & Strategy.