When looking for board games to play there are some criteria that most people look for before making their purchase; Is it easy to understand? Is it easy to set up? Does it have much replay-ability? Is it fun? Recently I've been playing a game called Camel Up which I believe hits all of these points.
In Camel Up, 2-8 players take on the guise of gamblers betting on a Camel race taking place in the desert, at the end of the race the player with the most money wins. Sounds simple, but this isn't your ordinary race around a Pyramid.
In Camel Up, 2-8 players take on the guise of gamblers betting on a Camel race taking place in the desert, at the end of the race the player with the most money wins. Sounds simple, but this isn't your ordinary race around a Pyramid.
Setting Up:
The game board is set up with three card spaces at the top, one on the left and right with stacked Camels, and one in the middle with a Pyramid. Underneath that there are five spaces each with a coloured Camel on them just above matching tents. Finally, there is a race track with 16 squares around a Pyramid.
Working from the top down, on the square in the top center with the Pyramid you place five Pyramid tiles. Just underneath those Pyramid tiles are the coloured Camel squares where the Betting Tiles are put, there are three tiles for each colour and are placed in the following order; the 2 money tile goes on the bottom, the 3 money tile on top of that and the 5 money tile on the top. On each of the coloured tents are placed the corresponding Camels all ready for the upcoming race. Lastly, there is a Pyramid in the center of the track that you put five coloured dice into that dictate how much the matching Camel moves, the Pyramid has a tab that you push when holding the Pyramid upside down to release a die. Now, the game board is set up each player is given five Betting Cards, a Desert Tile and 3 Egyptian Pounds from the bank.
The game board is set up with three card spaces at the top, one on the left and right with stacked Camels, and one in the middle with a Pyramid. Underneath that there are five spaces each with a coloured Camel on them just above matching tents. Finally, there is a race track with 16 squares around a Pyramid.
Working from the top down, on the square in the top center with the Pyramid you place five Pyramid tiles. Just underneath those Pyramid tiles are the coloured Camel squares where the Betting Tiles are put, there are three tiles for each colour and are placed in the following order; the 2 money tile goes on the bottom, the 3 money tile on top of that and the 5 money tile on the top. On each of the coloured tents are placed the corresponding Camels all ready for the upcoming race. Lastly, there is a Pyramid in the center of the track that you put five coloured dice into that dictate how much the matching Camel moves, the Pyramid has a tab that you push when holding the Pyramid upside down to release a die. Now, the game board is set up each player is given five Betting Cards, a Desert Tile and 3 Egyptian Pounds from the bank.
Game Play:
As the first move of the game, the youngest player takes the Pyramid where the coloured dice were place and releases all of them to see where the Camels start the race. The dice in the Pyramid have 1,2 and 3 on them, meaning Camels can only move up to a maximum of 3 squares each turn. So for example if 3 is rolled on the White and Blue dice and 1 on the other three, the White and Blue Camels are placed on the third square to start the race and the Yellow, Green and Orange Camels are placed on the first square. You then stack the Camels on top of each other, in no specific order, however the camel on top is considered to be in a better position than the ones its stacked on, EG; If the White and Blue Camels on square 3 are stacked in a way that the White Camel is on top, the the White Camel is in first place and the Blue Camel is in second place.
The Camels move clockwise around the race track when their matching dice is rolled from the Pyramid. If a Camel would land on a square that is already occupied by another Camel, the Camel that moved that turn would stack on top of the one already on that square to form a Camel Unit. If a Camel that is part of a Camel Unit would move and has any other Camels on top of it, the Camel and all Camels stack on it get moved as well, the Camels beneath the moving Camel however don't move. For example; If the Camel Unit has the Orange Camel at the bottom, the Blue Camel above it and the White Camel on the top, if the Blue Camel gets to move, it takes the White Camel with it but the Orange Camel stays where it is. As I said before, the Camel on the top of the stack, or Unit, is considered to be ahead of the ones it sits on.
A race is made up of several legs, each leg consists of Camels moving around the track and players making bets on which Camel they think will be ahead at the end of that leg. The leg ends when all the dice have been rolled from the Pyramid and each of the Camels has moved. There is scoring at the end of each leg where players can increase, or decrease, the amount of Egyptian Pounds they have.
Every turn each player, starting with the youngest, starts the leg and can do one of four actions; Take the top Betting Tile to back a Camel of their choice, Place their Desert Tile on the track, Take a Pyramid Tile to enable one of the Camels to move or use one of the five Betting Cards they were given at the start of the game to bet on either the overall winner of the race or the overall loser.
Taking any of the top Betting Tiles and placing it in front of you means you have backed that Camel to be in the lead at the end of the leg, if you have chosen correctly and the one you backed is first at the end of the leg then you gain the amount of Egyptian Pounds that is show on the left side of the card. Each of the Betting Tiles also has two other outcomes shown on the right side, the one on the top right is if the Camel comes in second at the end of the leg and the one of the bottom right is if it comes in third or worse. Depending on the Betting Tile a player has acquired the Egyptian Pound values are different, for example; If you pick up the top Betting Tile and it has five Egyptian Pounds on the left, that means that if the corresponding coloured Camel comes in first at the end of the leg you gain Five Egyptian Pounds, if it comes in second you would gain one and if it comes in third or worse you would lose an Egyptian Pound. All Betting Tiles are place back on their original square at the end of each leg.
Placing your Desert Tile on the track could give you an edge over other players. While they may be spending their turn betting on a Camel, you can place your Desert Tile to try and catch them out, or help the Camel you have invested in. The Desert Tile has two sides to it, on one side you have an Oasis and on the other you have a Mirage. If a Camel Unit ends it's on a Desert Tile, the player that placed that Desert Tile immediately gains one Egyptian Pound and depending on which side you placed, the Camel unit either moves forwards one space if you placed the Oasis Tile face up or moves one square back if you placed the Mirage Tile face up. At the end of each leg, all Desert Tiles are returned to the players that placed them.
Whenever a player takes a Pyramid Tile as their action for the turn, that player takes the Pyramid with the dice inside, turns it upside down and releases one of the dice and then moves the same coloured Camel around the track and, like I said earlier, if the moving Camel is part of a Camel Unit, it takes all Camels on top of it with it. Each Pyramid card also gives the player an Egyptian Pound at the end of every leg before being placed back for use in the next leg.
Betting on the Overall winner/loser can be done in any leg as an action and requires a player placing one of the five Betting Cards they were given at the start of the game face down on one of the Camel stack Squares at the top left or top right of the game board, either side of the Pyramid Tile square. If you want to back and overall winner, you place the coloured Camel Betting Card face down on the square on the left, if you think a certain Camel is going to come in last, you place a coloured Camel Betting Card face down on the square on the right. All Betting Cards must be played face down so no other players no what you're betting on, if any other players want to bet on the overall winner, they place there Betting Card face down on top of any other Betting Cards already placed. Both these squares have values of Egyptian Pounds based on who backed the right Camel.
The End Of The Game:
The end of the game occurs when the first Camel Unit passes the finish line, at which point you score for the end of the leg like normal and once that's done you need to do the end of the game scoring. First in this process you take the Betting Cards that have been played face down for the overall winner and turn the pile face up so the last card played face down on this pile is now at the bottom, you then proceed to see who backed the right Camel. The player that played the first Betting Card backing the winning Camel gets the maximum Egyptian Pounds of 8, the second player that also backed the winning Camel gets 5 Egyptian Pounds, the third player gets 3, the fourth gets 2 and all others get 1. This is only for the winner however and if any player has bet on any other Camel to be the overall winner, and was incorrect, then that player loses 1 Egyptian Pound. Next, turn the pile of overall losing Camels face up and do the same with this pile, in the losers case its the Camel furthest back on the track and, in the scenario of a stack, the Camel on the bottom of the Camels furthest back on the track is in deemed to be in last place.
Once the winners and losers are sorted, each player counts the Egyptian Pounds they have accrued throughout the game and the player with the most wins, if there is a tie then all players tied win.
All in all, I really enjoyed Camel Up. It's a simple game that doesn't require much set up or any prior knowledge and is easy to pick up very quickly, it's a game that I would recommend for new and veteran players alike as it involves a nice mix of strategy and unpredictability that can lead to some tight games, such as all the Camels being stacked two squares from the finish line and each player trying to scramble at the last minute to try and salvage any bets they may have made. It would also a great family game as it doesn't take too long and like I said, once you start playing it becomes very easy to understand.
I would highly recommend Camel Up if you're looking to teach someone about board games or even just trying to find something new to play with your friends, I'm sure it will find its way into your normal board game rotation.
I hope you've enjoyed my look at Camel Up and I will be looking at more board games soon but until then, keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.
The End Of The Game:
The end of the game occurs when the first Camel Unit passes the finish line, at which point you score for the end of the leg like normal and once that's done you need to do the end of the game scoring. First in this process you take the Betting Cards that have been played face down for the overall winner and turn the pile face up so the last card played face down on this pile is now at the bottom, you then proceed to see who backed the right Camel. The player that played the first Betting Card backing the winning Camel gets the maximum Egyptian Pounds of 8, the second player that also backed the winning Camel gets 5 Egyptian Pounds, the third player gets 3, the fourth gets 2 and all others get 1. This is only for the winner however and if any player has bet on any other Camel to be the overall winner, and was incorrect, then that player loses 1 Egyptian Pound. Next, turn the pile of overall losing Camels face up and do the same with this pile, in the losers case its the Camel furthest back on the track and, in the scenario of a stack, the Camel on the bottom of the Camels furthest back on the track is in deemed to be in last place.
Once the winners and losers are sorted, each player counts the Egyptian Pounds they have accrued throughout the game and the player with the most wins, if there is a tie then all players tied win.
All in all, I really enjoyed Camel Up. It's a simple game that doesn't require much set up or any prior knowledge and is easy to pick up very quickly, it's a game that I would recommend for new and veteran players alike as it involves a nice mix of strategy and unpredictability that can lead to some tight games, such as all the Camels being stacked two squares from the finish line and each player trying to scramble at the last minute to try and salvage any bets they may have made. It would also a great family game as it doesn't take too long and like I said, once you start playing it becomes very easy to understand.
I would highly recommend Camel Up if you're looking to teach someone about board games or even just trying to find something new to play with your friends, I'm sure it will find its way into your normal board game rotation.
I hope you've enjoyed my look at Camel Up and I will be looking at more board games soon but until then, keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.
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