I managed to try the Balloon Cup for the first time yesterday. The rules were easy to figure out and teach. The game reminds me a lot of Battle Line — players play cards on flags or hops to claim them. The differences are that in Battle Line, claiming the flags is enough — in Balloon Cup, the hops are just a means to an end. Also, in Balloon Cup you can play your cards on the opponent’s side of the hops…
That makes the choices non-trivial. Basically it’s very simple: low cards on your plains and opponent’s mountains, high cards on your mountains and opponent’s plains. But there’s usually more than one place to play the cards and deciding the priorities makes for some tough decisions. Still, it’s a light game and you can have problems with bad luck of draw. I expect to play this one a lot.