many

What do you mean by, “its the most complex board game in the whole world”? Given that, as you say, the rules are quite simple, in what sense is that sentence considering complexity?

By “combinations”, do you just mean possible board situations? And is that what you mean by complexity?

@Zaku “What do you mean by, “its the most complex board game in the whole world”? Given that, as you say, the rules are quite simple, in what sense is that sentence considering complexity?”

It’s the same with chess. The rules are simple enough. They can be learned by a small child in a few minute’s time. The abstract nature of the game and deep strategy involved are what make it complex. For both games. Likewise a game between two beginning players who have just learned the rules may be over in a matter of minutes, while a game between two Grandmaster players could last 6 or 7 hours.

@Darth_Algar I’m asking if that’s what he means, as opposed to, say Go variants (which AFAIK are mainly playing on different board sizes, or giving an handicap to one player by pre-placing some pieces, or maybe optional rules).

It seems to me that there are many games more complex than Go if the definition is the number of possible game states. (And probably by practically any other criteria, which had me curious about an idea that Go were the most complex board game in some way, other than if the field is merely Checkers, Chess, Monopoly etc.) There are many games with larger maps, more complex pieces, states for the pieces, different types of spaces, other game systems going on, various victory conditions, more than two players, hidden game state information, randomized outcomes, cascading effects, etc etc etc. that I would say are all multipliers to the complexity of a game.

Examples:
https://i.imgur.com/uraP69O.jpg
http://jgray-sfb.com/SSDs/Federation/dnp.gif
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vX5ZMhnQDOE/TqnTf4krMZI/AAAAAAAAAck/4XRdhfKDs2M/s1600/GT00-01.JPG
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/bc/72/d0bc72b9ddd3d416ba76644c14f13fa8.jpg
http://www.tabletoptitans.com/img/reports/0047_08.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/88/14/cf/8814cf076a479205d257fcb237c41573--miniature.jpg
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lpBp1QVPE3Q/WZrL6JVlaBI/AAAAAAAAEHg/bhO-ZObqJG4kP4ZtIsy6kC2-lNtrIpl6ACLcBGAs/s1600/DSCN4348.JPG
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/09/33/0c093386dd8e9c66a27b21eeaf5e7e62.jpg
http://www.zoi.wordherders.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/monsterwargame.jpg
https://arkiegamer.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1070434.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/irnhVrn2XOY/maxresdefault.jpg
https://woolshedwargamer.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/leipzig-table-end-of-saturday.jpg