Gaming with the Family: Camel Up review

Over the course of Memorial Day weekend, quite a few board games were played with my family.  We're on a series of posts that takes a look at a few games played from the perspective of what worked / didn't work for enticing my family into the hobby. 

     Camel Up

         2-8 players
         30 min to play
         ages 8+




How to Play

In Camel Cup, players bet on five racing camels (which apparently is a real thing) around a short track. Bets are made on which camels will come in first or second for shorter segments (called legs) and first or last for the overall race. Coins represent victory points in the game and there are various ways to earn or possibly even lose these.

You'll find that due to the randomness built into the game, your bets will frequently change and what may have seemed like a good bet at first will leave you yelling at a trailing camel. Fortunately, you do have some direct influence on how the camels move.

On your turn, you can do one of four things:

1. take a betting tile
2. take a pyramid tile and roll a die
3. play your desert tile
4. make a bet on the overall winner and loser of the race

During each leg, which completes after all camels move, you have an option to place a bet on who will be in the lead after the leg completes. Grabbing the correct betting tile first will earn you more points, but if you happen to grab a tile for a camel that isn't in 1st or 2nd after the completion of the leg, you'll lose a coin. 

Rolling the die determines which and how far a camel moves. This is how the game progresses through the legs. Each camel will be guaranteed a movement, but you don't know which one will come out or what the movement number will be. Camels will landing on the same space as other camels will either be placed on top of the stack or at the bottom depending on if they moved forward or backwards. If a camel has other camels on top of it when moving, those camels will move as a stack.

Desert tiles can be placed on the board in front of the camels to influence their movement. Depending on whether you play it as an Oasis or a Mirage, it can bump the camel ahead one space or move it back one. Either way you get a coin if a camel should land on it.

Betting on the overall winner (or loser) of the race is a great way to score points. Just like the betting tiles, it's important to be among to bet first to get the most possible points. However, betting early can be tough as the race leaders and losers can and will change over the course of the race.

The game ends as soon as a camel crosses the finish line. At that point, the leg is considered finished and scoring takes place both for the leg and the overall race.

Thoughts

gameplay - B-
components - B+

Gameplay is simple enough to grasp and players will quickly understand how camels move and betting works. Legs move fast enough to keep you engaged, although I've found that with more than 6 players the downtime is a bit too much. I'd recommend keeping player count in the 3-6 range if possible. The game is all about betting and it works well both for the legs as well as the overall race. Sure you can slightly influence the race, but it really comes down to timing. When and which camel to bet on is key to winning.

There isn't a ton of strategy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for a game that's designed to be accessible and enjoyable for a wide range. Besides the betting, strategy is limited to deciding when to roll or where to place your desert tile. The luck of the dice plays heavily into the results, but that's what makes the betting fun. Adding more strategy would put this game into a weird limbo in that it wouldn't be as accessible and likely wouldn't be enough to compete with other more strategically designed games.

One of the strengths of the game are the components. Artwork is colorful and appropriately cartoony, invoking the theme well. Wooden camels stack nicely and the betting tiles are made of a thick cardboard. The centerpiece of the game is the pyramid dice tower. Sure it may be gimmicky, but it's a fun gimmick and one that I find cleverly adds to the game. Not only does it draw interest, but it also works well to reveal the dice in a way that invokes groans or cheers from players.

While components don't make a game, they are incredibly important for luring new players to the table. Camel Up does this well and keeps them there with an entertaining game.


Yay:

• betting - betting without losing real money is usually fun (for most people)
• look and feel - game is attractive with the wooden camels and a unique pyramid tower
• simplicity - easily grasped rules with limited turn options
• plays quickly - with 3-6 players, games play fast enough to often warrant another playthrough

Meh:

• player limit - find that playing with more than 5 or 6 players tends to drag the game along
• randomness - some control, although this is limited and you're generally at the mercy of the dice



The first time my family played, they wanted to immediately play again. While it may not be the best game out there, there aren't many games out there that you can bring out and be enjoyed by almost anyone.

-NA

Family Meeples: 4/5





My Meeples: 4/5