General What’s the Most Complex Grand Strategy Game?

[Al]

Grand strategy games already demand patience, planning, and a high tolerance for menus, but some take it to another level. Whether it’s managing an entire economy, fine-tuning military logistics, or keeping an empire from collapsing under its own weight, some of these games feel more like running a government than playing a game.

So, which grand strategy game do you think is the most complex?

• Europa Universalis IV – Layers upon layers of diplomacy, trade, war, and internal politics. Conquering is easy—managing an empire for centuries without it falling apart is the real challenge.
• Distant Worlds 2 – Micromanage everything, or let the AI handle it and watch in horror as your empire collapses anyway. Logistics, exploration, diplomacy, espionage—this one goes deep.
• Victoria 3 – If you love economic spreadsheets disguised as a strategy game, this is it. Balancing trade, production, and political movements makes military conquest feel like an afterthought.
• Hearts of Iron IV – It’s not just about war, it’s about planning for war years in advance, balancing production, logistics, and supply lines before a single shot is fired.

Which one gave you the steepest learning curve? And, more importantly, did you ever actually master it, or did you just learn to survive?