The camel – the ship of the desert. That, in case you’re not sure, means the sandy bits of the planet, other than beaches, and not the part of a meal that is sweet. Not many desserts need a ship, other than custard, I suppose. Or syrup. Maybe.
The notable thing about camels is their hump or, for the right species of camel, humps.
Counter to popular ideas, a camel’s humps aren’t water bottles. Rather, they store starch. Camels don’t require a lot of water but a store of energy is important.
Another thing about camels is that they love spitting. Put yourself in their face and they’re likely to create a great ball of saliva and fire it at your face. Not nice.
The Diplomacy ‘Camel’
In Diplomacy, a Camel isn’t necessarily going to spit in your eye but they can be pretty bad-tempered. In short, they’re players who get the hump easily.
I’m not sure how well that translates if you’re not British, so if you ‘have the hump’ you’re annoyed and probably sulking at something.
In Dip, this is often someone in a game, who doesn’t know how to handle being stabbed, so they go off in a sulk. They probably won’t even communicate with the person who stabbed them again. Of course, there are other reasons a player won’t talk to another after a stab. Camels, though, do it because they’re sulking.
Stabbing is a part of the game. Yes, there are players who – they’ll tell you, at least – never stab. These aside, though, to win a game of Diplomacy you have to stab at least one other player. The reticence to do this is surely one reason so many games end in a draw.
Anyway, that’s a Camel in our great game: a player who gets the hump when things don’t go their way. Diplomacy isn’t for everyone; some people realise this quickly, others just carry on with their tantrums.
THE DIPLOMATICON 
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