Camel Up

Camel Up is an incredibly fun and unique board game that’s easy to learn but still very exciting to play. The gameplay is fast-paced, full of surprises, and keeps everyone engaged until the very end. The stacked camel racing mechanic is clever and makes every round unpredictable. It’s great for families, friends, and mixed-age groups, and the quality of the components is excellent. Perfect for game nights, parties, or casual play. Highly recommend Camel Up if you enjoy light strategy games with lots of laughs and excitement!

Tap into your inner desert sheikh with this fast paced camel racing game. This game is mostly luck but there’s a strategy to how the bets unfold. First off this game is best played with Bollywood SD Music’s song “Camel Racing” playing the background from your favorite music streaming service. Thank me later for what this adds to the game. The game unfolds as players bet against camels working their way around the board by chance. The earlier bets are worth more and the latter ones worth less. There’s an educational value to the strategy for kids in this way (consequences). The game is easy to learn and the board is really innovative. There is a small oasis that unfolds and folds cleanly back into the board. Be careful, that part is delicate, but if treated respectfully it should last. This oasis is purely aesthetic, but adds some fun dynamism to the game board. The board art is well crafted and has a fund 3D element to it. The most standout aspect of the board is the pyramid. The pyramid is the dice distributor (roller) for the turns. The game designers could have simply had dice to toss in the regular traditional fashion, but shaking the dice in a pyramid and dropping one off the bottom is a fun innovation and the order of the dice can make a difference for initial board setup - so be sure to use the pyramid. This game is a good for a wide age range and remains fun for adults too. Overall this is a winner, with a fragile element on the board (the oasis) that needs to be treated gently.

Saw folks playing this game in a brew yard, and the action and gameboard made me want it immediately. It did not disappoint! Easy to learn and so fun to play. You're betting on camels, so there is ample replayability. The board is so cool.

What's it about? I’ve described it before as combining “two of my favorite things: gambling and Mario Party chaos.” The premise sounds simple — you’re betting on a camel race — but it has a unique twist. How do you play? The camels move according to dice rolls. Only 5 dice can be rolled per leg of the race, and when one camel moves to share a space with another, they stack. Camels closer to the top of the stack are judged to be further along in the race — so for a stack of Blue-Purple-Red-Yellow-Green, Blue would be in first place, Purple in second, and so on down the stack. Players take turns making bets, trying to influence the camels with their spectator tiles, or moving the race along by rolling the dice. Pros & cons: The game is extremely accessible, I’ve found — no group I’ve played it with has ever seemed to dislike it, and I credit that to the simple rules and relatively low amount of strategy involved. That can be a double-edged sword, of course; if you’re HOPING for something with a greater focus on strategy, Camel Up may not be for you. But in a relatively casual setting, the game shines — the only penalty for any bad bet is the loss of a single coin and you can’t go into debt, so players can easily engage without stressing about risk. Needless to say, if you’re averse to gambling you’ll want to skip this one… but after recent plays, a family friend who’s a high school senior AND my dad, a literal, 72-year-old senior, both took an immediate shine to it. (We ended up buying a copy for our friend on her birthday.) Anyway, as far as the game, I do have one slight pet peeve among all this praise: while the art in the newest versions of the game is markedly better than the relatively utilitarian art from previous printings, the pop-up palm tree — while certainly impressive — can also get in the way at a crowded table. I wish there was a way to remove it without damaging the game.

Great strategy game. Fun for all ages. Even little ones - my 5 and 7 year old love the game.

Let me start by saying I wouldn't quite classify this as a Party Game. I play lots of games, RPGs, Euro based, card and campaigns, just all sorts of them including Party Games. I can get a large group together on our game night, and sometimes we get to enjoy these Party Games, but this is something else. This is spirited fun with a board and pieces, and gambling and the unexpected and the upsets also strategic while taking substantial or minimal risks. We loved this. I didn't play the old version, but this new one is a blast. The pieces are great to look at, the set-up easy and it plays 8, very well. It's not going to be slogged down by more players because the fun is all in the chaos and the not knowing while still hoping. Luck can create excitement, so if excitement is what you want, but not just blind lucky or bluffing with nothing but cards or a good poker face to guide you, this will is a nice bridge between a board game that quick and still requires just enough thought and strategy to keep players coming back for more. We spent hours playing this one night, and no one wanted to do another game.

Very fun and unpredictable game that my whole family enjoys. With player turn options to roll the dice, place bets, or place penalty/reward markers on the track, each player can use different strategies to score points, but ultimately as in most racing games, Lady Luck decides on the winner and losers.

Great game! We needed a new game and we were hooked. Everyone that comes over we pull it out and they enjoy it!! Takes about an hour to play, but very easy to talk while playing and the instructions were very easy to read and learn! I would give this a 10 out of 10.