Despite being the winner of the 2014 Speil des Jahres – the most prestigious award in board games – the thought of betting on racing camels didn’t sound all that riveting to me. On a lark, I tried it out with some friends at Snakes and Lattes and it really caught us off guard with how fun it is. Camel Up mixes together a unique take on the roll-and-move mechanic along with different ways of betting on the race that make every race exciting and silly. It does scale well, as the game claims to support from 2-8 players, though I think it works best with 3-5. I’m not qualified enough to say whether Camel Up deserves to be a game of the year champion, but it’s certainly earned a spot on my list of Awesome Board Games You Should Play.
In Third Person 