Camp Granada

Camp Granada box with caricature of Allan Sherman
Players	2-4
Playing time	60 minutes
Random chance	Medium (shuffling, wild cards)
Skill(s) required	Eye-hand coordination

Camp Granada is a 1965 children's board game by Milton Bradley Company based on Allan Sherman's popular 1963 novelty song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp). Campers take turns driving a breakdown-prone bus to gather ICKY animals from various summer camp locations to be the first to leave the real rotten camp for home. The game board depicts spikes on the diving board, an octopus in the swimming hole, and a lover's leap into a volcano.

Gameplay

Camp Granada Bus cards have an image of a blue bus in disrepair and, on the reverse, a humorous reason to either drive the bus to a camp location and pick up an ICKY animal or to receive a SPECIAL PRIVILEGE and "take one ICKY animal from any player". After drawing a Camp Granada Bus card, the player then moves the toy bus along the road to the camp location specified by the card.

The challenge is that the front axle of the bus can slide side-to-side and "the motor falls out right in the middle". In particular, if the front wheels move too far from the side of the bus, a small lobe on the middle of the axle will contact one of two miniature lever arms connected to the bus's radiator, which is hinged and will be deflected to fall forward - the "breakdown" that ends a player's turn. For success, a player must carefully watch that neither front wheel moves too far beyond the corresponding bus fender.

A tactic to negotiate turns without a breakdown is to steer by carefully sliding the rear of the bus. An alternate tactic is to 'cut the corner' to more easily negotiate sharp turns, but a rule requires at least one wheel be on the road (at some points, the road is narrower than the track width of the wheels). Players also learn to watch other players who drive the bus with their fingers close to the front wheels and to ensure such players don’t touch a front wheel to prevent the axle from sliding.

For the SPECIAL PRIVILEGE to "take one ICKY animal", a rule requires reaching into a competitor's bunkhouse without looking, so a game skill is to remember which competitor had acquired particular ICKY animals, and then by touch, recognize the shape of the needed ICKY animal.

The player who first acquires the required three ICKY animals and exits the camp is the winner.

Equipment and setup

Equipment includes the 23⅝x 19½" tri-fold game board, a plastic toy bus, 4 cardboard bunkhouses, 12 rubber ICKY animals (2 each Crawfish, Frog, Lizard, Mouse, Snake, Spider), 16 ICKY animal cards (2 for each of the 6 animals, plus 4 for the Boating, Bunkhouse, Handicrafts, and Hiking Awards), and 48 of the 2⅝x1¾" Camp Granada Bus Cards (6 SPECIAL PRIVILEGE, plus 3 for each of 12 of the locations and only 2 for First Aid Training, Bunk House, & Hospital)

Setup requires ICKY animals be placed at camp locations and the bunkhouses be assembled and placed at each corner of the game board for players to subsequently conceal ICKY animals. ICKY animal cards are then divided among the players to identify which ICKY animals need to be gathered.

References and notes