Balloon Race (1984)

Can you get all your balloons safely into the stratosphere? But watch out for falling hailstones!

Each player has 4 balloons and tries to move all of them from the bottom to the top row of the Sky Grid. The first player to do so wins the game. If a balloon hits a hailstone then the balloon is burst and returns to the bottom row. Players may also burst other players balloons by squashing it between their own balloons and/or a hailstone. Balloons can jump diagonally over balloons of the same colour (counts as one move) all the way up the Sky Grid thus being an efficient way of using the action-points allocated each turn.

To begin a game, the 10 hailstones are lined up in the stratosphere (one in each square). Each player places their pawn on the corresponding 'Big Balloon' space on the Flight Path on the outside of the board. Then players place their balloons on any squares on the bottom of the Sky Grid (each player places one balloon in turn until all balloons are placed). Several balloons can occupy the same square for the first 3 rows (green area). Beyond row 3 (in the blue area) - only one balloon to a square.

On a player's turn they roll a 10-sided dice and move their pawn around the Flight Path. When the pawn lands on or passes certain squares it gives that player a number of action-points (1-4) in which to move their balloons in an upwards direction (vertical or diagonal). The action-points may be split among the player's balloons as they see fit. When a player's pawn lands on a 'Storm Clouds' square on the Flight Path the player must move any hailstone of their choice down one square. If a player's pawn lands on a 'Wind Clouds' square the player must move any one of their balloons one square sideways (if that is impossible - their lowest balloon is deemed burst, and falls back to the ground.)

Players can choose to stop their pawn on the Storm/Wind Clouds squares even if the number thrown on the dice could take the pawn past.

When a player's pawn passes or lands on a Kite/Cloud square in the corner of the Flight Path the player also throws the dice to determine which of the 10 hailstones moves down one square.

The game ends when one player has moved all their balloons to the top of the Sky Grid or when a hailstone hits the ground (in which case each balloon carries a score for the height it has reached, the highest total score then wins the game). For a quicker game, players can agree that the first balloon to reach the stratosphere ends the game - then the highest total score wins.