Camel Up Cards

REVIEW

WIN, Place & Show, Fennet & Palm Tree

CAMEL UP CARDS

A race of camels in the desert

It is amazing to see how today the most popular games are immediately cloned with a "card" version, and Camel Up is no exception: while waiting now for the "dice" version too, let's have a look at this card game designed mainly for families or casual players. Expert players will probably discard the idea of trying it, but I recommend to keep it available anyway when there is half an hour still available after the main "dish" or when someone is late in the evening session: it is really a simple game, but not a simplistic one and the round's choice of cards to play is interesting.

Camel Up the Card Game includes 110 cards and 5 wooden camels (same size and colors of the original game) but adds a "Fennec" (a red desert fox) and a Palm (green) that we will consider later. All the components are of good quality, but I still suggest to use transparent sleeves to preserve the cards, because they are very much manipulated.

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Before the start, the players have to check the "set-up card" provided for that number of competitors: it explains how long the track should be and how many cards should be distributed. Then the camels are placed on the track turning five "race cards" and pushing forwards the camels of the sorted color (1 or 2 cases per card).

Close to the track the 35 "Betting Cards" (seven per color) are placed, there are four types:

- 20 cards for the "round winner": the players with those cards will get 5-3-2 pounds, but this prize is reduced to 1 pound only if the camel arrives in second places. If it arrives third to fifth, the player must pay 1 pound to the bank.

- 5 cards for the "show place": the player will get 2 pounds if this camel arrives third in the race, 1 pound only it it arrives second or fourth and must pay 1 pound if it arrives first or fifth.

- 5 cards for the "race winner": who bets on the final winner is paid 7 pounds, reduced to 3 if the camel arrives second. Otherwise the player must pay 1 pound.

- 5 cards for the "race loser": who bets on the camel arrived last in the race is paid 7 pounds, reduced to 3 if the camel arrives fourth. Otherwise the player must pay 1 pound.

Finally, everybody receives three pounds and a number of "race cards", as indicated on the set-up card (five cards with six players and up to twelve with just two). Each camel has six race cards of his color: five of them have a "+1" printed (the camel will move forward 1 case) and only one with a "+2" (two cases forward). The Fennec and the Palm are placed near the track, on top of the corresponding cards.

The race may now start.

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Following the instruction of the set-up card (and the number of players) everybody must:

(a) - discard from 2 to 5 cards from his hand

(b) - place on the table 1 to 6 cards to form the race deck

(d) - keep the last card in hand.

The race deck now should contain 10 to 12 cards for the actual round

In turn each player may now select one of the following actions:

- take the Fennec (OR the Palm) meeple and place it on one empty case on the race track (if a camel enters a case with the Fennec must go back one case; if it enters the case with the Palm must advance one case)

- turn the top card from the race deck, moving that camel 1 or 2 cases forward

- play the card from his hand and move the camel of the same color

If a camel arrives in a case that contains other camels, it is placed on top of them. If a camel that moves has other camels on is backbones, they also advance and remain stacked with the moving one. If a camel has some camels underneath and some over his backbone ... only the latter move with him. This is exactly the same system used on the original game.

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Before passing the turn the player has still the option of selecting one of the "bet cards" still available on the table.

When the last card of the race deck is played, the round is over and the round winner is decided, together with place and show positions. Then each bet is paid: Five pounds to the player that owns the "5" bet card, three and two for the following ones; one pound for the "place" position; two or one pound for "show". Then the race goes on with the following round: the camels remain in their position on the track and the players repeat the same procedure as before.

The race is over when a camel (or a stack of camels) crosses the final case: in a stack the winner is the top most camel. The bank pays all the betting for first and last positions and the player with most money wins the game

Camel Up Cards is a very interesting game to play with the family, or with casual gamers or even with the children (but they need to understand the betting system and probably have a little assistance from an adult on their first game). I also played this game with children of 5-6 years but we completely excluded the betting phases: they were really amazed in pushing their camels one over the other and they liked the game very much.

For regular or expert gamers, Camel Up Cards should be considered as a "filler" to finish an evening session or an "appetizer" before starting a more complex game (or if someone is late). The card selection at the beginning of each round is in effect interesting enough to add a "bit" of strategy to the game.

Each camel has only 6 cards in his color, as we already know, so it is possible to bet on a camel or to penalize another one when discarding near half of the cards at the beginning of the round and keeping a secret card in hand. But never forget that luck may be very decisive when playing cards.

In almost all out tests (with regular and expert gamers) after two rounds it was very clear who was the losing camel as one or two of them usually remained 4-5 cases back. Players tend to discard the colors of the "bad" camels in the following rounds and to concentrate on the "best" ones. Clearly, the first player of the third round had a big advantage, as he could select the "loser" card with a very good possibility to win the bet. But the first player of each round is always the one with less money, so the system tends to correct itself. A surprise may also arrive: the rules state that if a camel is too late at the beginning of a round all the cards between him and the preceding camels are returned on the back side (that shows a sand tempest) passing from TWO cases to only ONE. Thus a distance of four may become only one of two and even a camel on the back may be pushed to the top of a stack with a good combination of cards, thus regaining the top positions on the race.

It is not easy to "divine" the winner of the race on the first two rounds, and very often the final round is played with 2-3 camels stacked together. This is the situation when the secret card on hand may become decisive. Let's make an example: three camels are stacked together, at a distance of 2-3 cases from the arrival. I turn a card from the deck and I move the top two camels forwards by one case. In the following turn, I play my secret card and I move the third camel forward on the stack, but ON TOP of all and just in front of the arrival: whichever card is played now on one of those camels, the one on top will win.

An easy game for all.

Pietro Cremona

Players: 2-6

Age: 8+

Time: 60+

Designer: Steffen Bogen

Artist: Dennis Lohausen

Price: ca.10 Euro

Publisher: Eggert / Pegasus 2016

Web: www.pegasus.de

Genre: Racing, betting

Users: For families

Version: multi

Rules: de en + cz es fr it hu nl pl pt

In-game text: no

Comments:

Good family game

Nice as a filler for experienced players

Card selection provides a bit of strategy

Compares to:

Camel Up

Other editions:

Albi (cz), 999 Games (nl), Filosofia (en/fr), Piatnik (hu), uplay.it (it), Lucrum (pl), MasQueOca (es/pt)

My rating: 4

Pietro Cremona:

A game for the whole family but with some appeal also for expert players

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0