The great outdoors, sleeping under the stars, cooking sausages on a camp fire, it all sounds so calm, relaxing and tranquil. When the morning comes, sleeping bags are packed, tents are broken down and you are ready for another day trecking through the wilderness. Climb to the top of the peak, travel deep in to the woods or canoe to a nearby island.

Camp Pinetop is a one to five player set collection, hand management, grid movement game designed by Stephen Davies and published by Talon Strike Studios. You are the leader of a group of campers.

To win the game you will collect achievement patches (granting you special abilities) and increase the rank of your campers. Start of as a lowly possum and eventually work your way to the highest level of a badger.

Players will perform one of four actions on their turn which include drawing new supply cards from the display, drawing one supply card and moving to a new location, moving to a new location and collecting an achievement patch or placing a new camper on the board.

To increase the rank of your campers certain achievement patches must be gain. These achievement patches come in three different types, circles (immediate bonuses), squares (ongoing bonuses) and diamonds (changing how to use supply cards). The achievements can be levelled up by gaining the same achievement again which is required as part of the “levelling up”. There are additional mastery cards that can be gained, again, if certain requirements are met.

Players will continue moving round the board, drawing cards, claiming patches and ranking up their campers until someone has reached the rank of badger.

Duration

Duration of the game will depend on player count. At two players it takes about 45 minutes with higher player counts I would imagine the play time would be around 60-75 minutes.

The turns are very quick though. So there is minimal downtime, especially at two players.

Interaction

There is a little bit of interaction as you can move map cards around using some of the achievement cards and you can also occupy location spaces that other players may need.

The location spots aren’t blocked and if you move on to a space with another camper you simply give them a supply card. So although there is interaction in the game it is not aggressive or in your face.

Complexity

On the high end of light, there is enough rules and gameplay to make it engaging and interesting but nothing too complicated or convoluted.

Engagement

You are, for the most part, playing your own game and moving around the map tiles independently from other campers. But these doesn’t mean that you are not engaged. I find I spend my time keeping an eye on what other people are doing and the achievement patches they are unlocking as much as I am my own game.

I am always keeping a close eye on the supply cards as well so that I can grab the cards I require for the achievements that I need.