Summary
- Complex tabletop games are becoming more niche as designers focus on creating smaller, less dense experiences for newcomers to the hobby.
- Games like Star Wars: Rebellion, Root, and Gloomhaven provide newcomers with a good place to start if they are looking for more complex experiences in the tabletop gaming hobby.
- These complex games offer engaging gameplay, unique mechanics, and strategic depth that appeal to fans of heavy strategy and immersive experiences in the tabletop scene.
The tabletop gaming hobby has been around for a long time and has only burgeoned over recent years. With more games released, and the hobby becoming more mainstream, it’s harder for newcomers to the hobby to find more complex experiences.
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With game designers often trying to create smaller, less dense experiences, large and often inaccessible games are becoming more niche among board gamers. These examples aim to provide those who may not have played many complex games with a good place to start.
Updated December 23, 2023 by Harry Ted Sprinks: With tabletop games only gaining popularity in recent years, and more people becoming confident with typical tabletop systems and mechanics, the need for more complicated board games has never been more present.
Complex games such as Root have nearly become synonymous with modern tabletop games, especially with the release of the tabletop RPG of the same name, and its popularity alone has shown that there are newcomers to the hobby looking for games like these.
12 Star Wars: Rebellion - An Asymmetric Star Wars Game
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 3.74/5
- Genre: Strategy
- Player Count: 2-4
- Released: 2016
Star Wars: Rebellion is a 2-4 player game from publishers Fantasy Flight Games that, arguably, works better with two. Star Wars: Rebellion is one of many Star Wars tabletop games, and it could be argued that it's one of the best.
The game has players control either the Empire, commanding a large military, or the titular Rebellion, with a humble, weaker military that relies more on subterfuge, intrigue, and sabotage. Star Wars: Rebellion gives both sides plenty of decisions to make, and the asymmetric nature of the game makes it one of the more complex Star Wars board games on the market.
11 Root - An Asymmetric War Game Of Woodland Animals
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 3.79/5
- Genre: War
- Player Count: 2-4
- Released: 2018
This modern classic war game tasks players with controlling one of several unique, asymmetric factions. Each faction is represented as a distinct race of woodland creatures, and each of them plays dramatically differently. Despite Root's simple structure, these asymmetric factions, as well as the game's cards, boost the game's complexity.
Root tasks players with working their way through several phases each turn, attempting to capture as many territories as they can to further their agenda. The game features an abundance of cards that add edge-cases and strategic depth, and when the game begins to get stale, players can take control of a different faction and enjoy an entirely fresh experience.
10 Brass: Birmingham - A Strategy Game Of Economics
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 3.89/5
- Genre: Strategy
- Player Count: 2-4
- Released: 2018
This sequel to the revered Brass board game is a strategy game that focuses on economic management. As the title suggests, the game takes place in Birmingham during the time of the Industrial Revolution. Brass: Birmingham may look like a relatively dry experience, but its strategic systems make for an often engaging time.
Brass: Birmingham can take a long time to get to grips with, especially for newcomers to heavier board games. This is due to its emphasis on resource management and economics, as well as requiring players to develop and enact a solid strategy from the outset.
9 Gloomhaven - An Expansive Dungeon Crawler
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 3.90/5
- Genre: Strategy
- Player Count: 1-4
- Released: 2017
Gloomhaven's monumental scope and size immediately give away its complexity. While some may assume Gloomhaven's masses of cardboard miniatures, tiles, and cards make the game more convoluted than it is complex, Gloomhaven's core card-based combat is an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master system that constantly forces players to make tough decisions.
Gloomhaven has players customize and learn decks of cards unique to their characters, taking them into missions and battling monsters with various strengths and weaknesses using two cards at a time. Each card has two sides (the top and the bottom), meaning they can all be played in two different ways. Cards can also combo with other cards in different ways, depending on the decisions players make when playing them. Combine this with the strategy of customizing a deck and choosing what equipment to buy before embarking on a mission, and Gloomhaven becomes a deep, engaging dungeon-crawler that only expands on its complexity over time.
8 Dune - A Classic Game Of Asymmetric Strategy
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 3.99/5
- Genre: Strategy
- Player Count: 2-6
- Released: 2019
This long-awaited reprint of the classic Dune board game, originally released in 1979, is a sprawling asymmetric strategy game on an epic scale. Dune allows players to take control of one of six factions from Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novels, each with their strengths and weaknesses.
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Dune has players vying for control over various strategic locations on the map, as well as the iconic "spice" resource. Players have to juggle several things at once, managing their military and spice economy simultaneously as they contest for control over various objectives. Due to the game's asymmetric nature, it can be extremely complex, especially for new players. This, coupled with the long play time (especially at larger player counts), makes it a very complex game, especially when playing with every faction.
7 Spirit Island - A Complex Co-Operative Experience
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 4.06/5
- Genre: Strategy
- Player Count: 1-4
- Released: 2017
This cooperative game for 1-4 players offers a surprising amount of depth, complexity, and challenge. Each player controls one of eight different Spirits, each with their unique powers that can have both short and long-term effects. Because of this, players have to make strategic decisions in advance and cooperate to defeat the Invaders.
What makes Spirit Island even more complex is its asymmetry, both with its eight unique Spirits, and the three unique Invader cards, each of which has its distinct challenges that force players to change their strategy.
6 Oath: Chronicles Of Empire & Exile - An Ever-Evolving Legacy War Game
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 4.11/5
- Genre: Strategy
- Player Count: 1-6
- Released: 2021
This game for 1-6 players was designed by Cole Wehrle, designer of the hit tabletop war game, Root. One player takes control of the Chancellor, the leader of the land, attempting to keep an "Oath," while the other players take control of the Exiles, who are generally a lot weaker than the Chancellor but can win the game in a larger variety of ways. Players control a character, as well as war bands represented by wooden miniatures, traveling to various locations to take specific actions that evolve throughout the game.
It's these multiple victory conditions that add to Oath's themes, narrative, and more importantly its mechanical complexity. Furthermore, the Chancellor can also offer Citizenship to Exiles, transforming them into Citizens and tasking them with completing their own "Successor" goal, which also changes depending on the "Oath" that's currently in play. As well as this, the winner of each game becomes the Chancellor for the next, even keeping their key locations on the board, as well as influencing what cards are added to the pool in Legacy-game fashion. The game's Legacy mechanics complicate things even further, bleeding into its gameplay over time and changing the strategies and decisions that players make in the future.
5 Food Chain Magnate - A Strategic Game About Managing Fast Food Chains
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 4.20/5
- Genre: Strategy
- Player Count: 2-5
- Released: 2015
This heavy strategy game from revered publisher Splotter Spellen tasks players with controlling competing fast-food chains, and growing to be the biggest and most successful on the board using card-based resource management.
Food Chain Magnate takes place on a city map, allowing players to purchase real estate and affect the gameplay in different ways. However, a lot of the game's focus is on hiring and managing staff, all with their specific uses, with each player building and managing their own enterprise. Food Chain Magnate is one of the most complex board games available and takes a notoriously long time to play, but for fans of heavy strategy and engine-building games, it can be a rewarding experience.
4 War Of The Ring: Second Edition - A Slow-Burning, Two-Player Experience
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 4.21/5
- Genre: War
- Player Count: 2-4
- Released: 2011
This Lord of the Rings game is a thematic tabletop experience that's tremendously faithful to the source material. Players will take control as the Free People of Middle-earth and the Shadow Armies of Sauron, battling with each other over control of Middle-earth. However, the Free People must be attacked by Sauron's armies or convinced to join the fight by a member of the Fellowship before their armies can be of any use to the Free People. Although the player of the Free People must make some effort to gather a military and defend their territory, or else risk losing the game, their main focus is on secretly getting the One Ring to Mount Doom.
This unique and thematic victory condition adds an extra layer of strategic depth and complexity to War of the Ring that heightens both the gameplay and the narrative. While the player of the Free People has their attention divided between defending Middle Earth and protecting the Ringbearer, the Sauron player must divide their attention between obtaining a military victory and preventing the Ringbearer from destroying the One Ring.
3 Twilight Imperium - A Complex Space Opera That Consumes An Entire Afternoon
Board Game Geek Complexity Rating: 4.31/5
- Genre: Strategy
- Player Count: 3-6
- Released: 2017
Twilight Imperium has been around for years. Now in its fourth edition, the game was originally released in 1997 and has been an iconic part of the tabletop scene ever since. The game is revered for its mechanical complexity, asymmetry, social deduction and diplomacy, and long playtime. Twilight Imperium's complexity, depth, and general inaccessibility can turn players away, but for those who put in the time to learn the game's mechanics, it can be a deeply rewarding experience.
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Twilight Imperium has players take control of one of seventeen unique factions, vying for control over various planets across a large map that can change every game. The game features various resources to manage, action cards, objectives to complete (both shared and secret), a technology tree, and unique locations that act as strategic objectives for players to fight over.