Camel Up The Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of Camel Up The Card Game is to acquire the most money by placing correct bets on how the camels will place in the race.

Set Up

Find the leg setup card that matches the number of players playing the game. Return the remaining leg setup cards to the box.

Create the race track. Start with the one card that has the start line banner. Continue placing cards next to one another in a continuous line in ascending order (1, 2, 3, etc.). Keep placing cards until you reach the number card that matches the number on the bottom of the leg setup card. Then place the finish card after the highest numbered card. Return any remaining race track cards to the box.

Setting up the race track — In this game there are four players. On the bottom of the setup card there is the number 16. When setting up the race track you will use the cards with numbers 1-16. You will then place the finish card at the end of the track.

Find the five final betting overall winner cards and five final betting overall loser cards. Place the ten cards above the race track.

Placing the final overall winner and loser cards — Above the race track you will place all of the final overall winner and loser betting cards.

Each player receives three Egyptian Pounds, one fennec token, and one shortcut token.

The youngest player starts the game and receives the starting player marker.

Camel Starting Positons

Place the five racing camels (all colors except for black) behind the start line with their head pointed towards the finish line.

Shuffle all of the racing cards.

Draw and reveal the top five racing cards. For each card you will move the corresponding colored camel forward one or two spaces.

Move the yellow camel during setup — The first card was a yellow one. The players move the yellow camel forward one space.

If there are any camels on top of the camel you are moving, move them along with the camel from the drawn card. Should a camel land on a card that already has a camel(s) on it, place the camel(s) you moved on top of the stack.

Moving a group of camels during setup — The players draw a yellow one card. You will move the yellow camel and the purple camel on top of it one space forward. Both camels are placed on top of the green camel on the second space of the track.

After you have drawn the five cards, place the crazy camel (black) on the seven spot. Turn the camel so its head faces the start line. The crazy camel runs in the opposite direction of the other camels.

Placing the Crazy Camel — A player placed the Crazy Camel on the seventh space. It is turned to face the first space.

Setting Up A Leg

Placing the Betting Cards

First you will create the leg betting winner piles. Take the 20 leg betting winner cards and sort them by their color. Create a pile for each color. Place the two two-Pound revenue cards at the bottom, followed by the three-Pound card, and finally place the five-Pound card on the top. Place these five stacks underneath the race track.

Beneath each of the stacks you created in the previous step, place the corresponding colored leg betting midfield card.

Placing the leg betting winner and midfield cards below the race track — The leg betting winner and leg betting midfield cards have been placed below the race track.

Find the fennec and shortcut card. Place them next to the race track. Then put the fennec and shortcut marker on their corresponding cards.

Placing the Fennec and shortcut markers — The players place the Fennec and shortcut markers on top of their corresponding cards.

Placing the Crazy Camel

Next you will look for the crazy camel (black). If it is behind the camel in fourth position (whether it is part of a stack), take the crazy camel and place it three spaces in front of the camel in first. If there are any camels on top of the crazy camel, you will take them off the crazy camel before you move it. The crazy camel still faces the start line. Should there not be three spaces in front of the camel in first place, you will place the crazy camel on the finish line.

Repositioning the Crazy Camel — The Crazy Camel has already passed four of the camels. The players will place it three spaces in front of the camel in first place.

Create the Racing Deck

Find the five crazy camel cards and set them aside. Shuffle the remaining 30 racing cards and then follow the leg setup card to create the racing deck.

The number on the left side of the card determines how many cards are dealt face-down to each player. Players can look at their cards. Discard any remaining cards facedown into a pile.
Look at the number at the top of the card. This is the number of cards that each player will discard from their hand. Add the cards you choose to discard to the pile from the previous step.
Along the bottom of the leg setup card is the number of cards each player adds to the racing deck. You will place these cards into a face-down deck on the table (separate from the other pile). Once all of the players have chosen their cards for the deck, you will shuffle the racing deck. If there are five players, randomly take two cards from the discard pile (the pile from the previous two steps) and add them to the racing deck. When there are six players you will randomly add three discarded cards to the racing deck.
All of the players should have one card left in their hand. Each player plays this card face up in front of themselves.

Leg setup card in Camel Up The Card Game — Each player receives six cards. They will choose three cards to discard and two to add to the racing deck. They will place the final card in front of themselves.

Choosing what to do with your race cards — This player has to choose three cards to discard, two to add to the race deck, and one card to place in front of themselves. They may want to add the yellow cards to the racing deck and place one in front of themselves since they can then bet on the yellow camel knowing that it will move two or three times during the current leg.

After you have completed the racing deck, you will randomly take two of the crazy camel cards that you set aside, and shuffle them into the racing deck. Add the remaining crazy camel cards to the discard pile.

Sandstorms

The final step of setting up a leg is to look if there are any sandstorms. Look at the race track cards to see if there are any cards between the lead racing camel (ignore the crazy camel) and the racing camel in last place. If there are any cards that have no camels on them, a sandstorm occurs on that space. Flip over each of the cards with no camels on them to the sandstorm side (has one space instead of two).

Placing a sandstorm — There was a card that had no camels on it. The players turn the card to the sandstorm side. The whole card now counts as one space when moving camels.

Playing a Leg of Camel Up The Card Game

The player with the starting player marker begins the leg. Play moves clockwise throughout the game.

On your turn there are two actions that you can take. You must take exactly one race track action. You also have the option to take exactly one betting action (this action is optional). If you choose to take a betting action, you may perform the action before or after you take your race track action.

After you take one or both actions, your turn ends. Play passes to the player on your left/clockwise.

Race Track Actions in Camel Up The Card Game

Place the Fennec or Shortcut Markers

For your race track action you can choose to either place the Fennec or shortcut marker. You may only take this action if you still have the corresponding token and the marker is not already on the race track. You will discard the token and then take the corresponding marker. When placing the marker you need to place it on an empty space on the race track. You cannot place it on the finish card, and it cannot be placed behind the racing camel that is in last place.

Placing the Fennec marker on a space — One of the players decided to use their Fennec token to place the marker on the three space of the race track.

After you place the marker, you will take the corresponding card and place it in front of yourself.

The Fennec and shortcut markers are used to affect camels that land on the space that they are placed on.

Should a camel land on a space that a player placed the shortcut marker on, that camel moves an additional space forward. If this moves them to a space that has another camel on it, you will place them on top of the stack. You will then remove the shortcut marker from the track and the card from the player that placed the shortcut. Both are placed next to the race track.

Using a shortcut while moving — The yellow camel with the purple camel on its back landed on a space that has the shortcut marker on it. The yellow and purple camel move forward one space. You will place them on top of the Crazy Camel.

When a camel lands on a space that the Fennec marker is on, the camel moves backward one space. If it should land on a space that already has a camel(s) on it, you will place the camel you just moved to the bottom of the stack. You will then remove the Fennec marker from the track and the card from the player that placed it. Both are placed next to the race track.

Landing on a Fennec marker — The blue camel landed on a space that had the Fennec marker on it. Move the blue camel back one space. It will be placed below the red camel on the second space.

Should all of the racing camels (not the crazy camel) pass the space that the Fennec marker or shortcut marker was placed on, remove the marker from the race track and place it next to the track on its card.

When a crazy camel lands on a Fennec marker or shortcut marker, it works the same as a racing camel. The direction the crazy camel moves is reversed for each marker though since the crazy camel is moving in the opposite direction of the other camels.

Crazy Camel lands on shortcut marker — The Crazy Camel landed on the shortcut marker. It will move one space forward. You will place it on top of the purple camel.

Revealing the Top Card from the Racing Deck

When you choose this action you will draw the top card from the racing deck and turn it face up in a pile next to the draw pile. At any time during the game players can look at cards that have been played in the leg. You may never look at the cards in the racing deck or the facedown cards discarded before the leg began.

Revealing a camel card — The purple one camel card was revealed. The purple camel is moved forward one space.

Look at the color of the camel and the number on the card. This determines the camel that you will move, and how many spaces you will move them. Each card should have either a one or two on them. You will move the corresponding camel one or two spaces towards the finish line.

If there are any camels on top of the camel you are moving, those camels are moved along with the camel you are moving. If the camel you are moving is on top of other camels, the camels it is on top of are not moved.

Move a group of camels — A green one camel card was revealed. The green camel will be moved one space forward. As the yellow camel is on top of it, the yellow camel moves forward with the green camel. The Crazy Camel (black) remains on its current space because it is below the green camel.

Should you move a camel(s) to a space that already has camels on it, you will place the camel(s) on top of any camels already on the space.

Placing a camel on another camel — The blue camel is moving one space forward. Since it is landing on a space that already has the red camel on it, the blue camel will be placed on top of the red camel.

Moving the Crazy Camel

Two of the cards in the racing deck are crazy camel cards. When you reveal one of these cards, you will move the crazy camel (black) towards the start space the number of spaces printed on the card. The crazy camel cannot move past the start space, so any additional movement past the space is ignored. If the card has a zero on it, the crazy camel is not moved at all.

Should the crazy camel have other camels on its back, those camels will move backwards along with the crazy camel. Additionally the crazy camel will move back an additional space.

Moving the Crazy Camels with camels on its back — The Crazy Camel is about to move one space. Since it has a camel on its back though, it will move back an additional spot (two spaces total) and move the yellow camel with it.

Play Your Racing Card

While setting up the leg, each player placed one card face up in front of themselves. This is each player’s personal racing card.

For your race track action you could choose to play the card you placed in front of yourself. These cards are played in the same way as if you drew it from the deck. You will move the corresponding camel forward one or two spaces. After you move the camel you will add the card face up on top of the other cards played during the leg.

Using your own racing card — The current player placed the yellow two card in front of themselves. They have decided to play the card on their turn to move the yellow camel forward two spaces.

You also have the option of playing one of the cards placed in front of one of the other players. To use another player’s card though, you must pay them one pound. You can then use the card and move the corresponding camel. After you move the camel, you will add the card to the pile of played cards.

Using another player's racing card — Another player placed the two red card in front of themselves. The current player wants to use the card right now so they pay the player who placed the card face up one Pound.

Betting Actions in Camel Up The Card Game

On each of your turns you can take one of these two betting actions. These actions are optional and you can choose not to take either of them.

Take a Leg Betting Card

You can look at the available leg betting cards and choose one that you would like to take. You can take any winner or midfield card that you want as long as no player already took it. Once you have chosen a card, you will place it in front of you. When you take a leg winner card, you will take the top card from its stack.

Taking a Leg Betting Winner card — This player thinks the yellow camel will win the current leg so they took the top leg betting winner card.

There is no limit to the number of leg betting cards that you can take.

Take a Final Betting Card

You could use your betting action to take one of the final betting cards. Should you take a final betting overall winner card, you think that camel will win the entire race. When you take a final betting overall loser card, you think that camel will end up last in the entire race. You can take any final betting card as long as another player hasn’t already taken it.

Taking the yellow final overall betting winner card — This player thinks that the yellow camel will win the entire race. They will take the corresponding final betting overall winner card.

During the game you can only have one overall winner card and one overall loser card. If you would like to change one of these cards during the game, you can take this action to swap the card you already took with one of the cards of the same type that are still available. For example you can swap your overall winner card for a different available overall winner card.

End of a Leg in Camel Up The Card Game

A leg ends whenever a player reveals and plays the last card from the racing deck. They will move the camel(s) from the card. The first player marker is then passed to the player to the left of the player that took the last card from the racing deck. The leg ends after the last card is drawn and used. Therefore if the last player wants to take a betting action, they should take it before they draw the last card from the racing deck.

Players will then figure out how much money they received/lost from the leg betting cards they took during the leg. You will ignore any final betting overall winner and loser cards since these are scored at the end of the game.

When determining the positions of the camels, when a camel is in a stack it is in a higher position than any camels below it. The crazy camel (black) does not get a place since it is running in the wrong direction. Any camels stuck behind the start line share the fifth place position.

Determining the positions of the camels at the end of a leg — The current leg has ended. The yellow camel is in first since it is furthest along the track and is on top of the purple camel. The purple camel is in second. They are followed by the green camel in third, the red camel in fourth, and the blue camel in fifth.

First calculate how much you earn from each leg betting winner card you take. If the camel that matches the color of the card is currently in first place, you will receive Pounds equal to the first number (5, 3, or 2). If the matching camel is in second place, you will receive one Pound. Should the camel be in any other position (3rd, 4th, 5th), you will lose one Pound.

Determining the amount of Pounds you receive from leg betting winner cards — Along the bottom are three leg betting winner cards. The player that took the yellow card receives five Pounds since the yellow camel is in first. The player that took the purple card receives one Pound because purple is in second. Finally the player that took the green card loses one Pound because the green camel is in third.

Next calculate how much you earn from each leg betting midfield card that you took. Should the matching camel be in third place, you will receive two Pounds. If it is in second or fourth place, you will receive one Pound. Should it be in first of fifth place, you will lose one Pound.

Scoring leg betting midfield cards — Along the bottom of the picture are leg betting midfield cards. The green camel is in third place so the player that took it will receive two Pounds. The player that took the purple cards receives one Pound because purple is in second place. Finally the player that took the blue card loses one Pound because blue is currently in last.

Check to see if the Fennec or shortcut card is in front of you. This would happen if you placed the marker on the race track and no camels landed on the space. For each of these cards left in front of you at the end of the leg, you will lose one Pound.

Losing a Pound due to having the shortcut card — This player placed the shortcut marker, but no camels landed on it. Since they had the shortcut card at the end of the leg, they lose one Pound.

Total the amount you earn/lose from each of these sources. If your total is positive, take the corresponding amount from the bank. If your total is negative, you need to pay the bank the amount you owe. You can never go below zero Pounds.

Discard all of the cards in front of each player except for final betting cards. Any player that used their Fennec and/or shortcut tokens, take them back. You will then start a new leg following the Setting Up a Leg rules above.

Before you set up the next leg though, check to see if there are three or more spaces between the leading camel and the finish card. If there are less than three spaces, you will extend the race track by taking one of the race track cards from the box to extend the track. You should keep adding cards until there is exactly three spaces between the lead camel and the finish card. You may have to turn one of the cards to the sandstorm side in order to make it exactly three spaces. If there are no race track cards remaining, you do not add any cards to the track.

Extending the race track — The yellow camel is within three spaces of the finish card at the end of the leg. The 17/18 card is added after the 16 space in order to extend the race track.

Winning Camel Up The Card Game

The game ends whenever any camel or stack of camels reach the finish card. The game ends immediately when this happens. The current player can’t take a betting action unless they do it before moving the camels to the finish card.

End of the race in Camel Up The Card Game — The yellow and green camels have reached the finish space. The race has ended. The green camel won the race followed by the yellow, blue, red, and purple camels.

All of the players will now perform one final payout round.

First you will score the last leg following the scoring process for the end of a leg (see the section above).

Players will then score the final betting cards that they took in the game. When there is a stack of camels on a space, the camel on top of the stack places higher than the camels that it is on top of.

If you took a final betting overall winner card, you will see if the camel you bet on won the race. If you bet on the camel that won the race, you receive seven pounds. Should they get second you will receive three Pounds. Any other position loses you one Pound.

Scoring the final overall winner card — Since the green camel placed first, the player that took the corresponding final overall winner card receives seven pounds. The player that took the yellow card earns three pounds because yellow placed second. The player that picked up the blue card loses one Pound because blue was in third.

For the final betting overall loser card, you will see if the camel you bet on was in last. If the camel is in fifth place, you will receive seven Pounds. If they are in fourth place, you will receive three Pounds. Should they be in any other position, you will lose one Pound.

Scoring the final overall loser card — The purple camel was last so the player that took the corresponding final overall loser card earns seven Pounds. The player that took the red card earns three pounds because the red camel placed fourth. Finally the blue card loses one pound since blue was third.

All of the players then compare their money. The player with the most money wins the game. If there is a tie, all of the tied players share the victory.

Winning Camel Up The Card Game — At the end of the game the top player had the most money with 22. They have won the game.

Camel Up The Card Game FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

5 Racing Camels
1 Crazy Camel
30 Racing Cards (6 for each color racing camel)
- Five 1 cards
- One 2 card
5 Crazy Camel Cards
- Two 0 cards
- Two 1 cards
- One 2 card
12 Race Track Cards
1 Finish Card
5 Leg Setup Cards
50 One Pound Coins
30 Five Pound Coins
Starting Player Marker
Leg Betting Winner Cards (4 for each racing camel color)
- 2 Two-Pound Revenue Cards
- 1 Three-Pound Revenue Card
- 1 Five-Pound Revenue Card
5 Leg Betting Midfield Cards (1 for each racing camel color)
5 Final Betting Overall Winner Cards (1 for each racing camel color)
5 Final Betting Overall Loser Cards (1 for each racing camel color)
1 Shortcut Maker
1 Shortcut Card
6 Shortcut Tokens
1 Fennec Marker
1 Fennec Card
6 Fennec Tokens
Instructions

Year: 2023 | Publisher: Pretzel Games | Designer: Steffen Bogen | Artist: Chris Quilliams

Genres: Betting, Card, Family

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 30-45 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Moderate | Luck: Moderate

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.