The Gaming Moguls

The Mogul Scale is a next-generation way of quantifying the difficulty of a game. A simple 1-5 rating in the same fashion as BoardGameGeek doesn’t tell the full measure of the difficulty of a game since it doesn’t identify if a game is difficult due to the rules or the strategy.

The Mogul Scale is a two-dimensional rating scale where the rules difficulty and the strategic difficulty is measured individually.

The first number quantifies the rules complexity using a 1-5 scale. A 1-rating has very few rules and can be taught verbally in seconds (think: tic-tac-toe rules). A 5-rating has a very thick rules manual, many addendums, FAQs, rules charts, player aids, and a long rules explanation. (think: High Frontier)

The second letter quantifies the strategic complexity using an A through an E. An A-rating has very low strategy and may be either instant to grasp or be entirely luck-based. An E-rating has layers and layers of complexity and may take years to master. (think: Go or many 18xx titles)

Game Name	Mogul Scale	Publisher	Designer	Rules Weight	Strategy Weight
Feudum	5C	Odd Bird Games	Mark K. Swanson	5	C
Agricola	3D	Lookout Games	Uwe Rosenberg	3	D
Insider	1B	OINK Games	Jun Sasaki	1	B
Azul	1B	Plan B Games	Michael Kiesling	1	B
Kingdomino	1B	Blue Orange Games	Bruno Cathala	1	B
Telestrations	1A	USAopoly		1	A
Lords of Waterdeep	2B	Wizards of the Coast	Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson	2	B
Concordia	2C	Rio Grande Games	Mac Gerdts	2	C
Ethnos	2B	CMON	Paolo Mori	2	B
Caverna	3D	Lookout Games	Uwe Rosenberg	3	D
Yokohama	3C	OKAZU Brand	Hisashi Hayashi	3	C
Roll for the Galaxy	3C	Rio Grande Games	Wei-Hwa Huang, Thomas Lehmann	3	C
Great Western Trail	4D	eggertspiele	Alexander Pfister	4	D
Gaia Project	4D	Z-Man Games	Jens Drögemüller, Helge Ostertag	4	D
Lisboa	5D	Eagle-Gryphon Games	Vital Lacerda	5	D
High Frontier	5D	Sierra Madre Games	Phil Eklund	5	D
Glass Road	2C	Z-Man Games	Uwe Rosenberg	2	C
Troll	1B	OINK Games	Kouji Kimura	1	B
Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done	2B	Tasty Minstrel Games	Seth Jaffee	2	B
Clans of Caledonia	3D	Karma Games	Juma Al-JouJou	3	D
Food Chain Magnate	3E	Splotter Spellen	Jeroen Doumen, Joris Wiersinga	3	E
Grand Austria Hotel	3C	Lookout Games	Virginio Gigli, Simone Luciani	3	C
Stephenson's Rocket	2C	Rio Grande Games	Reiner Knizia	2	C
Tichu	2D	Rio Grande Games	Urs Hostettler	2	D
Keyforge	2B+	Fantasy Flight Games	Richard Garfield	2	B+
Metro-X	1C	OKAZU Brand	Hisashi Hayashi	1	C
Deep Sea Adventure	1B	OINK Games	Jun Sasaki, Goro Sasaki	1	B
Pulsar 2849	3C	Czech Games Edition	Vladimír Suchý	3	C
Oh My Goods	2B	Mayfair Games	Alexander Pfister	2	B
Turin Market	2C	Jordan Draper Games	Jordan Draper	2	B
Brass: Birmingham	3D	Roxley Games	Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman, Martin Wallace	3	D
Tokyo Highway	1A	itten	Naotaka Shimamoto, Yoshiaki Tomioka	1	A
Leaving Earth	3D	The Lumenaris Group, Inc.	Joseph Fatula	3	D
Welcome To	2B+	Deep Water Games	Benoit Turpin	2	B+
Moneybags	1A	OINK Games	Jun Sasaki, Yoshiteru Shinohara	1	A
Dungeon Petz	4D	Czech Games Edition	Vlaada Chvátil	4	D
Wingspan	2C	Stonemaier	Elizabeth Hargrave	2	C
18Lilliput	3D	Fox in a Box	Leonhard "Lonny" Orgler	3	D
Arboretum	1C	Renegade Games	Dan Cassar	1	C
Railroad Revolution	3C	What's Your Game?	Marco Canetta, Stefania Niccolini	3	C
Isle of Skye	2C	Rio Grande Games	Andreas Pelikan, Alexander Pfister	2	C
Orleans	3C	Tasty Minstrel Games	Reiner Stockhausen	3	C
Imperial Settlers	3C	Portal Games	Maciej Obszanski, Ignacy Trzewiczek	3	C
Imperial Settlers w/Deck Construction	3D	Portal Games	Maciej Obszanski, Ignacy Trzewiczek	3	D
Troyes	3C	Pearl Games	Sebastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, Alain Orban	3	C
At the Gates of Loyang	3C	TMG Games	Uwe Rosenberg	3	C
Gentes	3C	TMG Games	Stefan Risthaus	3	C
Near and Far	3B	Red Raven Games	Ryan Laukat	3	B
Town Center	2D	Alban Viard Game Studio	Alban Viard	2	D
Rolling America	1B	Gamewright	Hisashi Hayashi	1	B
Twins	1B	OINK Games	Reiner Knizia	1	B
Container	3D	Mercury Games	Franz-Benno Delonge, thomas Ewert	3	D
Caper	2B	Keymaster Games	Unai Rubio	2	B
Tribune: Primus Inter Pares	3C	Fantasy Flight Games	Karl-Heinz Schmiel	3	C
Lost Cities	1B	Rio Grande Games	Reiner Knizia	1	B
Ca$h 'n Gun$	1A	Asmodee	Ludovic Maublanc	1	A
Galaxy Trucker	3B	Czech Games Edition	Vlaada Chvatil	3	B
The Expanse	2D	Wiz Kids	Geoff Englestein	2	D
Ghosts of the Moor	1A	Tasty Minstrel Games	Michael Kiesling, Wolfgang Kramer	1	A
In Front of the Elevators	B	Saashi & Saashi	Sashi	2	B
Nine Tiles Panic	1B	Oink Games	Jens Merkl & Jean-Claud Pellin	1	B
Encore! (Noch Mal)	1B	Schmidt Spiele + Stronghold Games	Inka & Marcus Brand	1	B
The Great Zimbabwe	3D	Splotter Spellen	Jeroen Doumen, Joris Weirsinga	3	D
Chicago Express	2C	Winsome Games / Queen Games	John Bohrer	2	C
Tricks and the Phantom	1B	Oink	Takashi Saito	1	B
Walking in Burano	2B	EmperorS4/AEG	Wei-Min Ling	2	B
Time Chase	1B	Renegade Game Studios	Jonathan Woodard II	1	B
Pax Pamir (second edition)	3E	Wehrlegig Games	Cole Wehrle	3	E
Edge of Darkness	4B	AEG	John D. Clair	4	B
Across the United States	2C	Okazu Brand	Hisashi Hayashi	2	C
Eggs of Ostrich	1A	Japon Brand	Shipmei Sato	1	A
Crokinole	1A	NA	NA	1	A
Irish Gauge	2C	Capstone Games	Tom Russell	2	C
Point Salad	1A	AEG	Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, Shawn Stankewich	1	A
Lorenzo il Magnifico	3C	CMON	Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli, Simone Luciana	3	C
Bus	2C	Splotter Spellen / Capstone Games	Joris Wiersinga, Jeroen Doumen	2	C
Age of Steam	3D	Eagle Gryphon Games	Martin Wallace	3	D
Wingspan	2B	Stonemaier Games	Elizabeth Hargrave	2	B
Underwater Cities	3C	Rio Grande Games	Vladimir Suchy	3	C
Ra	2C	Uberplay	Reiner Knizia	2	C
Sticheln	1B	AMIGO	Klaus Palesch	1	B
Pax: Transhumanity	4D	Sierra Madre Games	Matt Eklund	4	D
Maskmen	2B	Oink Games	Jun Sasaki	2	B
Fantastic Factories	2B	Metafactory Games	Joseph Z Chen	2	B
Let's Make a Bus Route	2B	Saashi	Saashi & Saashi	2	B
World Without End	3C	Mayfair Games	Michael Rieneck, Stefan Stadler	3	C
Twilight Struggle	3D	GMT	Ananda Gupta, Jason Matthews	3	D
Shobu	1C	Smirk and Laughter Games	Manolis Vranas, Jamie Sajdak	1	C
Snowdonia	3C	NSKN Games	Tony Boydell	3	C
Biblios	1B	Iello	Steve Finn	1	B
Nine Tiles	1A	Oink	Jean-Claude Pellin	1	A
6 Nimmt!	1A	AMIGO	Wolfgang Kramer	1	A
Acquire	2B	3M	Sid Sackson	2	B
The Grizzled	2B	CMON	Fabien Riffaud, Juan Rodriguez	2	B
Ora & Labora	3C	Lookout Games	Uwe Rosenberg	3	C
Lanterns	2B	Renegade Games	Christopher Chung	2	B
Bosk	1B	Floodgate Games	Daryl Andrews, Erica Bouyouris	1	B
Teotihuacan: City of Gods	3C	NSKN Games	Daniele Tascini	3	C
Q.E.	1A	Boardgametables.com	Gavin Birnbaum	1	A
Condottiere	2B	Zman Games	Dominique Ehrhard, Duccio Vitale	2	B
Tribune: Primus Inter Pares	3C	FFG	Karl-Heinz Schmiel	3	C
Pyramids Deadline	1A	Oink	Jun Sasak	1	A