What it is
Camargue is a tile-laying game: together, everyone builds a single landscape, the Camargue, the stretch of coast in the south of France where the Rhône meets the sea. The tiles show five landscapes, villages, water, wheat, woods and lavender, and they’re crossed by paths.
Every tile you place has to continue the paths without cutting them off, and it scores based on the area of the same landscape it extends and on how many tiles it touches: the bigger the area and the more sides you touch, the more you score. Everyone also has helpers, each tied to two landscapes: when another player scores on one of those landscapes, you can discard the helper and take the same points, even if it isn’t your turn.
How it plays
You draw your tile at random, and that leaves little room for big strategies. There’s no way to prepare a patch of land and hope it’s still there when your turn comes round again.
So you try to score however you can, without helping the next players too much. If you create an area that will give lots of points to whoever places the next tile there, it’s very unlikely that someone will be you.
At our table
A very simple tile-laying game, perfect for anyone getting into board games who wants to try the genre before moving on to something meatier.
How long does Camargue take?
The box says 45 minutes. At our table: 35 minutes at four.
The box
The game you teach to newcomers?
The one you bring out for people who have never played.
Also on the table
Thanks to ABACUSSPIELE for sending us Camargue.