Camel Up
Camel Up is a betting racing game, where you are betting on camels racing around the board, controlled by dice rolls from a novel pyramid. The game can play with up to 8 players so was perfect for a trip to our friend's place for games night, where we played with 6 people. Designed by Steffen Bogen, published by eggertspiele with art by Dennis Lohausen and Chris Quilliams.
Players: 2-8
Suggested Playtime: 20 - 30 minutes.
BGG Rating: 7.1
Having played Camel Up several times before, and with just two first-time players, we were able to quickly run through the rules and get started. With 6 players and a dramatic final couple of rounds we were on the upper limit of the 30 minutes.
The game is built up of several rounds where each camel will move once, after which anyone with bets on that round will evaluate to see if their camels are in first or second, and win/lose their respect coin bets. The game ends when the first camel crosses the finish line - once this happens a final round of round bets is checked first, and then the overall bets are tallied.
Players turns go around clockwise and a 'turn' gives you a choice of one from four different actions: Place an overall bet; place a round bet; add a modifier tile; or draw a pyramid card.
Players: 2-8
Suggested Playtime: 20 - 30 minutes.
BGG Rating: 7.1
Having played Camel Up several times before, and with just two first-time players, we were able to quickly run through the rules and get started. With 6 players and a dramatic final couple of rounds we were on the upper limit of the 30 minutes.
The game is built up of several rounds where each camel will move once, after which anyone with bets on that round will evaluate to see if their camels are in first or second, and win/lose their respect coin bets. The game ends when the first camel crosses the finish line - once this happens a final round of round bets is checked first, and then the overall bets are tallied.
Players turns go around clockwise and a 'turn' gives you a choice of one from four different actions: Place an overall bet; place a round bet; add a modifier tile; or draw a pyramid card.
When making an overall bet, you are able to pick which camel you think will come in either first or last at the end of the game. There are big points to be won if you pick the correct camel early on, but it’s any camel’s race.
Making a round bet is a little less risky than the overall winner or loser, but with only 3 bets per camel available (and with camels able to carry other camels), there is no such thing as a sure winner
Adding a modifier tile will help to give a small amount of control over the outcome. If a camel lands on the tile you have placed it will be forced forward or back one square based on which side you placed face-up, and as an additional bonus you will also get a coin.
Drawing the pyramid cards is what will move the camels. You will take the unique pyramid shaped dice shaker, and release a single dice before moving the camel of the matching colour forward the number of spaces shown on the dice. Camels that are on top of a moving camel are also carried along.
The art is a very illustrative style with very cute components: the camel meeples are fun, and the pyramid dice shaker is really unique and different. It feels dramatic to roll out a dice.
This is a great game to play with lots of people - as adding more doesn’t really slow the game down too much. We have the expansion in our collection and we are looking forward to playing this one again soon.
Danny:
Overall thoughts: A good quick game for lots of people. Because it is all down to luck it can be very swigging and you can get punished because of the order of dice coming out or their values. But because of this, it can also mean there can be exciting come backs from far behind
Best bit: Yellow caught up with everyone, and was in a position to win after everyone wrote it off in the second round
Worst bit: The luck creates all the highs and lows throughout the game, it is amazing when something comes together, but also sucks when a sure thing gets turned upside down
Next time: Next time I might try to take some bigger risks, and not play the numbers, but like Yugi I need to believe in the heart of my camels
MB:
Overall thoughts: This game is fun and I can see I would be hopeless at actual betting IRL.
Best bit: I really like rolling the dice, and heckling other players.
Worst bit: My strategy is to pick a favourite camel at the start and bet big on it, the first other camel that tries to ruin my camel's chances at victory I then bet big on to lose. One day I hope it will pay off but objectively I can see this is a terrible strategy and I am not at all surprised that I got a total of 9 points.
Next time: Next time I will change nothing - one day I am sure I will get a big win.
Our Gaming Trophy:
These are our regular game buddies, and we have created a DIY trophy that gets given to the winner on the night (we can move our faces around to record who was 1st to 4th place - the winner takes the trophy home until the next game night). With camel up being our only solo game, this was what we used for the decider, our friend (and Danny's board game arch-rival) Andrew scored 36 points so he got to hang on to the trophy… for now.
Scores:
Overall thoughts: A good quick game for lots of people. Because it is all down to luck it can be very swigging and you can get punished because of the order of dice coming out or their values. But because of this, it can also mean there can be exciting come backs from far behind
Best bit: Yellow caught up with everyone, and was in a position to win after everyone wrote it off in the second round
Worst bit: The luck creates all the highs and lows throughout the game, it is amazing when something comes together, but also sucks when a sure thing gets turned upside down
Next time: Next time I might try to take some bigger risks, and not play the numbers, but like Yugi I need to believe in the heart of my camels
MB:
Overall thoughts: This game is fun and I can see I would be hopeless at actual betting IRL.
Best bit: I really like rolling the dice, and heckling other players.
Worst bit: My strategy is to pick a favourite camel at the start and bet big on it, the first other camel that tries to ruin my camel's chances at victory I then bet big on to lose. One day I hope it will pay off but objectively I can see this is a terrible strategy and I am not at all surprised that I got a total of 9 points.
Next time: Next time I will change nothing - one day I am sure I will get a big win.
Our Gaming Trophy:
These are our regular game buddies, and we have created a DIY trophy that gets given to the winner on the night (we can move our faces around to record who was 1st to 4th place - the winner takes the trophy home until the next game night). With camel up being our only solo game, this was what we used for the decider, our friend (and Danny's board game arch-rival) Andrew scored 36 points so he got to hang on to the trophy… for now.
Scores:
Andrew: (36), Anthony (26), Tori (22), Danny (17) and MB and Frances (tied with 9 each).
Overall Rating Game: 15.5/20 (Danny rated 8, and MB rated 7.5)We want to include ratings in our play recaps but we also want to make it clear that these ratings are based just on how this play went for us rather than a rating of the game itself - as it is quite hard to rate the game after just a few infrequent plays.
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