The CBG Mastery Score might be interesting for those who enjoy getting better at a game.

In short, the CBG Mastery Score gives a quick overview of how much effort you will need to put into becoming a strategy powerhouse for the game being reviewed.

“Easy to learn, hard to master”

The CBG Mastery Score has nothing to do with a game’s “complexity” (BGG weight), but more on the effort needed to learn the strategies of the game and how to employ them to get better results.

(Disclaimer: Sometimes CBG Mastery Scoreand BGG weight are aligned due to, sometimes, more rules = more options which in turn has a higher BGG weight score and CBG Mastery Score)

Games can have a lot of rules to them and many moving parts, but once you get through that initial barrier, the game isn’t as complex as it might have seemed (which would result in a lower CBG Mastery Score).

Example: Risk and Lost Ruins of Arnak

However, some games are the complete opposite and represent well the “easy to learn, difficult to master” saying. These games might have a single-page rule book and are simple to learn but there’s more strategy than it may seem (which would result in a higher CBG Mastery Score). Some might say, games with more…. Crunch!

Example: Farmers Market and Calico or even chess!

But, let’s be honest, some games are exactly what they seem: Complex to learn with LOTS of strategy (higher CBG Mastery Score); others are really easy to learn and have NO strategy (lower CBG Mastery Score). 

The CBG Mastery Score is rated on a scale of 1 to 10.

• The lower the score, less effort to "master" the game

• The higher the score, more effort will be required to "master" the game