Animals: Camels

In Sankoré: The Pride of Mansa Musa, a dynamic, interactive, mid-weight Eurogame, 1-4 players manage the prestigious University of Sankoré in 14th-century Timbuktu, tasked by the emperor Mansa Musa with spreading knowledge throughout West Africa, even as the great university is raised around them.

By enrolling and graduating your pupils, teaching classes, adding to your curriculum, and filling the great library with books, you will advance knowledge in four main disciplines: theology, law, mathematics, and astronomy. Once construction of the university is complete, the value that the empire places on each discipline will dramatically affect how you score the knowledge you have passed on.

In a dedicated solo mode, you compete against the "Distinguished Scholar", a passionate and ambitious academic controlled by an elegant automated system. They may not be as nimble as you, but they are focused and driven and will strive to produce the best possible students.

Can you navigate the corridors of academic competition and bring renown to Mansa Musa's prized university?

—description from the publisher

In Camel Up, up to eight players bet on five racing camels, trying to suss out which ones will place first and second in a quick race around a pyramid. The earlier you place your bet, the more you can win — should you guess correctly, of course. Camels don't run neatly, however, sometimes landing on top of another one and being carried toward the finish line. Who's going to run when? That all depends on how the dice come out of the pyramid dice shaker, which releases one die at a time when players pause from their bets long enough to see who's actually moving!

This 2018 edition of Camel Up features new artwork, a new game board design, a new pyramid design, engraved dice, and new game modes, including crazy rogue camels that start the race running in the opposite direction! You never know how a race will end!

In Camel Up: Off Season, each of the 3-5 players has their own caravan of four camels that can carry goods, with the camels being able to carry 3, 4, 5, and 6 goods. Goods come in four types — carpets, vases, dates, and (non-date) fruit — and these goods will be available at markets, with one more market in play than the number of players. Each double-sided market indicates how many face-up and face-down cards are placed there, in addition to the special power of that market.

At the start of a round, players bid to see who selects goods first from a market, with the bidding rules being set by the back of the topmost goods card in the deck. Whoever wins the bid pays their money to the bank, while everyone else keeps their coins. (Coins are victory points, so you might not want to throw away too many of them!)

The winning bidder chooses a market, uses the power of that market (if they wish), then takes all of the goods from that market, flips them face up (if needed), then loads the goods on their camels. A camel can hold goods of only one type, and if a goods type is on a camel, then you must continue placing that good on the same camel. Each camel has a goods limit, however, and if you exceed that limit, then you must throw away all of that type of good.

Each other player in clockwise order then chooses an unchosen market, optionally uses its power, and collects and loads its goods. Each player then has the option of selling goods from at most one camel, with each type of goods paying out in different ways:

Dates: Cards show 1-4 dates, and the more you sell at once, the more money you receive.
Carpets: Cards come in six colors, and you can't sell the same color twice in a batch. Again, the more you sell at once, the better.
Vases: Cards come in three types (with some overlap), and you can sell only one shape at a time
Fruit: Cards come in four types worth different amounts, and you can sell only the lowest-valued fruit.

Place a 1 coin on the unchosen market, flip all the other markets, refill those markets with cards, then start the next round. When the deck runs out, complete one more round — selling once from each of your camels — then whoever has the most money wins.

In Zooloretto, each player uses small, large, wild, and exotic animals and their young to try to attract as many visitors as possible to their zoo – but be careful! The zoo must be carefully planned as before you know it, you might have too many animals and no more room for them. That brings minus points! Luckily, your zoo can expand. A zoo of a family game in which less is sometimes more...

Can be combined with

Aquaretto
Zooloretto Mini

You are the head of a Mongolian family, intent on becoming the most powerful in the land. Use your resources wisely to take control of fertile steppe lands to raise horses, build sacred temples, develop caravans of camels, and control the beautiful oases. The player with the most points at the end of the game will be anointed the Noble of the Oasis.