Campsite Review

Campsite is a game for 2-6 players ages 8 and up. Before we explain the rules, we just want to take a moment to compliment the graphic design of this game. The flat color and clean line styles bring a delightful charm to this game that exudes an ageless appeal. We really love the illustrations on the box, tiles and cards!

Now, onto the nuts and bolts. This is a game where you and your fellow players build the board and earn points as you go. It’s played in 3 rounds of 7 turns each. To start, everyone gets 7 tiles comprising the 7 terrain types: Desert, Meadow, Water, Forest, Mountain, Trail, and Wilderness which, appropriately enough, is sort of like a “wild” tile. Take the top two cards from the pile, and lay them side by side to set the starting play area. Then, deal everyone three cards. The cards will have a mix of empty squares, and squares made from a combination of two terrains. On each turn, a player must play a card to expand the play area. Your card can be adjacent to or overlap a previous card, so long as the overlapped area is made of empty spaces. Place your card carefully, as then you’ll need to place a terrain token on an empty space. Here’s the kicker: for each of the surrounding 8 squares that match your token, you get a point! Desert and water make a beach, so if you play a water or desert tile on an adjacent empty space, count those squares toward your total. Surrounding squares can add to your total so long as a single terrain type matches. If there’s a “x2” card adjacent, multiply your point total by 2! The only tile that works a bit differently is the Wilderness tile. With this tile, you earn one point for each different terrain type, up to a max of 6. After all of this, players draw another card, and a new turn begins. After 3 rounds of 7 turns, whoever scored the most points wins!

There’s a lot of strategy that goes into Campsite when determining how to play your cards to maximize your points. If you ever get overwhelmed, just check the handy terrain symbols in the corner of each card.