Most complex game on BGA?

[Fizzy_Soda]

I've seen several 4/5 complexity games on bga. Are there any 5/5 complexity?

[Meeplelowda]

I've seen several 4/5 complexity games on bga. Are there any 5/5 comple ity?

Using this filter I found Pax Renaissance, A Feast for Odin, and Through the Ages all rated 5/5. But that just filters it to games for "core gamers." You still have to look individually at the 70+ games. There's no filter for 5/5. There may be more, but I stopped after finding three.

It might be faster for you to go to BGG and find the lowest complexity game you'd consider to be 5/5, use the advanced search to filter by that complexity or higher, then see if it's on BGA. The list won't be that long depending on how strict you are. For example, if you filter by games at least as complex as Pax Renaissance on BGG (4.63/5), you only get 21 results.

Also, remember that the BGA ratings are somewhat arbitrary. Some games may be 3/5, but only because that's the default if you give something a rating at all.

[Shivaware]

I haven't played it, but Unconditional Surrender! by GMT games is also 5/5 on the complexity scale.

[Strode]

I've never played Feast for Odin, but it doesn't look like it's in the same league as Pax Renaissance.

Unconditional Surrender is a GMT wargame, which alone makes it a good candidate. And this makes me think it's the winner:
https://www.gmtgames.com/US/USE_Ruleboo ... -03-05.pdf

City of Big Shoulders might be the heaviest economic game.

[Meeplelowda]

I've never played Feast for Odin, but it doesn't look like it's in the same league as Pax Renaissance.

Agreed based on rating. Its BGG complexity is 3.86/5. I haven't played it or any of the Pax games. The only one I've played from above is Through the Ages (2015), which is at 4.44/5 and feels like it.

[Arjuna92]

Funnily enough, Through the Ages (4.44 on BGG) doesn't feel that heavy to me. Yes, it has a variety of metrics that you have to balance well enough to succeed. Basically if you let any of resources, food, science, military, civil actions and happiness slack too much you're going to be in big trouble. And there are a number of different mechanisms and other peculiarities to haunt you (corruption, losing 2 yellow tokens each age, etc.) but it just feels slick and polished and I don't feel like I have to burn my brain when I play it.

Feast for Odin (3.86 on BGG) offers a plethora of worker placement options but none of them is actually so complex in execution. It's certainly going to be hard to make very good choices when you start playing it because there are just so many of them that it's hard to weigh them against one another. But if you just pursue some strategy and don't worry too much about the rest, you can play this game without so much difficulty.

Pax Renaissance (4.63 on BGG) is quite different because there are a variety of different actions you can take, particularly the various conflict one-shots, where you have to figure out which pieces are on which side in each type of conflict, make it hard to grasp to me. Add that you have to consider the various side effects your actions will have (levies anyone?), the desire or rather attempt to plan ahead at all and that you might want to work out what your opponent(s) is/are trying to accomplish and how to thwart them and I find it the most complex game I've tried my hand at on BGA. Making a convoluted move, in which you gain several kings as vassals (particularly taking them away from an opponent), feels really rewarding though.

Another sprawling game, in which not just the way you plan your moves is complex but there is also a lot of diplomacy and a question of what your opponents are after plus a lot of asymmetry, is Twilight Imperium (4.33 on BGG). That might be taking Pax Ren's spot at the top complexity for me.

I have not tried the above-mentioned Unconditional Surrender (3.79 on BGG) or City of the Big Shoulders (4.00 on BGG) though.

[cigma]

Those are the ones I found by searching BGG (complexity 4-5) and comparing with BGA:
Pax Renaissance: 4.63
Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization: 4.44
Gaia Project: 4.40
Madeira: 4.30
Age of Innovation: 4.26
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization: 4.18
Barrage: 4.12
Anachrony: 4.00
City of the Big Shoulders: 4.0

[RicardoRix]

Probably goes to show just how well Pax Renaissance is designed and implemented, because you can play it (and win) without reading the rules. Look at the player aids.

[scottishben]

The most complex games are probably war games that are still in Alpha so I dont want to say too much about them - but worth building up your rep to get alpha access if those are of interest to you.

The BGG rating of complexity isnt always very accurate as it is about expectations as much as weight - so a war game like M44 is "light" but has as much rules as some midweight euros.

[nik592]

Having played a decent amount of Feast for Odin, I wouldn't call it call a heavy game, maybe on the high end of moderate weight. I'm not the biggest fan of really heavy games myself and I feel like I enjoy FFO too much for it to be that.

That said, I would agree that Madeira and Anachrony mentioned by cigma are definitely on the heavier side. Barrage probably too, though it's been a while since I played. I'm still not sure if I really enjoy Madeira or not - I kind of want to, but not sure I do. I do quite like Anachrony and Barrage though, even though Anachrony ends up quite thinky because of the timeline aspect of it.