Balloon Cup

The Basics
Description: In Balloon Cup, the players compete in several short balloon flights (hops) to collect the colored cubes associated with each hop.

Four landscape cards, two Plains alternating with two Mountains, are laid out and 1, 2, 3 or 4 cubes in assorted colors (gray, blue, green, yellow, red) are added. From a hand of 8 Balloon cards must try to pass each landscape by adding cards matching the colored blocks onto their side of table, although winds (and cunning) may occasionally cause them to play on their opponent’s side - a move that can really ruin the opponent’s plans.

High-valued balloons are played on the Mountains and low-valued balloons on the plains. Whoever is the better balloonist takes the cubes from the card, which is then flipped over and refilled with cubes. Mountains becomes Plains and vice-versa. 5 Trophy cards of value 3 to 7 are placed at the top of the cards. When a player has collected enough cubes of a given color, he earns the Trophy card for that color. Players may even trade 3 otherwise useless cubes for 1 they can use.

The first player to earn 3 trophy cards is the winner!

How to Play (I can teach, or you can read the online rules)

• Yucata (Web Guide)
• Gravon (Web Guide)
  
• Rio Grande Games (Official Rulebook)

Where to Play Online (I play on Yucata)

• Yucata (Free - Registration Required)
• Gravon (Free - Registration Required)

Cheat Sheets (from the Geek)

• Player Aid (Downloads a Pdf)
• Teaching Aid (Downloads a Pdf)

Game Hints

• Basic Strategy: Thread on the Geek
  
• My Tips: Remember if you score for someone else you get to go again. Plus remember the card distribution of numbers.

Views

• Opinion: I enjoy this game, fills a quick filler role for two players.
• Online: Works fine online, if not better online.
• Work: We easily could play 2-3 games of this.
• Home: Easy game to teach to kids, and has enough choices at times to keep parents into it.

Other Info

• Plays best with: 2 player game.
• Gateway Suitability: Very easy to learn, solid two player gateway game.
• Spouse Suitability: Chrissy liked the game.
• Re-playability: Very high online, and pretty good to high for a two player game.
• Real Life Setup: A few minutes of shuffling and dealing cards, and putting cubes on cards and in the bag.
• Real Life Time/Length: 20 minutes.
• Geek Link: http://boardgamegeek.com/game/5716