Indigo (board game)

Indigo is a 2012 tile-laying board game designed by Reiner Knizia and published by the German games company Ravensburger. Two to four players compete by placing hexagonal tiles printed with colored pathways onto a shared board, extending routes that carry gems from the center of the board out toward the edges. Each player owns gem-collecting posts along their own edge of the board, and a gem that reaches one of a player's posts is captured for that player, while a gem that reaches an opponent's post benefits the opponent instead, so every tile placement can help or hinder several players at once. The game belongs to the family of abstract tile-laying strategy games that Knizia is known for, rewarding players who can read the developing path network several moves ahead and time their own tile placements to redirect gems toward their own posts or away from a rival's. As a modern hobby board game released through a major European publisher, Indigo represents the kind of designer-driven abstract strategy game that has become a significant category within contemporary tabletop gaming.