Meld This One, Split That, And Then *Urk*

I have a fondness for games that are conceptually simple but then develop an emergent complexity that breaks my brain. The latest of these that I've encountered is Rummikub, which draws its basic rules from the card game Rummy. You try to play numbered and colored tiles in sets and runs, allowing you to get rid of all of your tiles. What I love about the particular ruleset we've been playing with (there are apparently a reasonable number of Rummikub variations) is that you can rearrange existing sets and runs on the table if it allows you to play a new tile. This leads to lots of chained analysis of the form "I can play my blue six if I pull the blue five off the set of four fives and split the blue seven from the run over there which means I need to put the blue eight into the set of eights over here and the nine can go. . . hmm. . . well, I could grab the red nine from that set and. . ."

Like I said, it tends to break my brain. I like it anyway.