This game was inspired by the record-setting high altitude balloon ascent into the stratosphere by Auguste Piccard in August of 1932. His grandson's record-setting flight around the world was the inspiration for Balmy Balloonists. The box cover depicts a very tall, billowy balloon such as used in the actual ascent with the word "STRATOSPHERE" displayed across it in a very typical for the 1930's typeface. Copies of this game today are worth $50 and more.
The first reaction may be "What inspired a balloon game in 1963?" I too would like to have a good answer to this question, but never having seen the game can only report that its title means "Jump From the Clouds" and it was published by Abel-Klinger. As there seems to have been a television series of the same name around the time, I expect it was a tie-in game and in fact have only a comment in the Luding game database to support that it even pertained very much to ballooning. According to various nostalgic web pages, the TV program appears to have been about travelers parachuting into various adventurous locales such as the Wild West, Ancient Troy, a pirate boarding, etc. Ballooning might well have been merely the stitching between episodes. But if you ever run into this one, be sure to check it out and let us all know what it's like.
With 1977 we come to a game which I have actually played. Published by Ravensburger, it was designed by Eric W. Solomon, who may be better known for some of his other titles such as Billabong, Black Box and Conspiracy. The title means "Balloon Race", but there is a little bit more going on as the balloons are not just trying to reach a destination, but also to deliver the mail! I very much doubt that balloons have ever been trusted anywhere with anything as serious as the mail and this game proves why. All too realistically, players can spend a long time trying to get to where they are going. Since the sequence of play is that a player first chooses altitude and then turns over a wind card to see how the speed and direction change, it can be almost maddening trying to get anywhere with certainty. And it is not simply a matter of crossing a line, but actually landing on a specific spot. Some nice ideas are the accurate reflection that stronger winds exist at higher altitudes and at least in some sense the interplay between gas and ballast in piloting. What will not fail to impress are the nice-looking plastic balloons which adjust altitude by traveling up and down on a tapered plastic stick, nicely-formed plastic tokens and large plastic hexagons in three different heights to indicate the current wind speed.
Appearing in the same year, this one also came from Ravensburger, but as a specialty game made for the soft drink Fanta. Both games use virtually identical balloon pawns, although in this one they carry the Fanta logo. The title means "Fantastic Balloon Voyage," – notice the similarity between "Fanta" and "Fantastiche". It's interesting to speculate on the relationship between this game and the one above. Did Fanta come with their request first and Ravensburger decide that as long as they were ordering balloons anyway they might as well make a game on it? Or did Ballonrennen fail to sell well and Ravensburger look for a way to re-use the pieces? Or perhaps it was one of lifes happy accidents and both ideas came in at the same time. Whatever the case, Fanta's game was designed by Tom Werneck, one of the German gaming pioneers, founder of the famous Spiel des Jahres prize and author of the short book, Leitfaden für Spieleerfinder (Guide for Game Inventors).
The game itself has something of the flavor of Empire Builder as players are dealt several destinations and must strategically order these to find the shortest path. The map stretches from the Alps to Amsterdam, and from Hamburg to Paris. Paths are delineated on a square grid plus there are diagonal lines, but curiously only in the northwest to southeast direction. As it means the board travels faster in one direction than the other, this is totally weird! But weird does not mean bad; rather, players are forced to think a little harder and take this into account in their planning. The game is rated for ages 7 and up and illustrated accordingly with a dazzling series of colorful images which are particular to the folklore each locale. The map is traveled according to altitude just as in Balloonrennen with the only restriction being an ascent limit of just one level. Wind direction is controlled by a special die which the player always throws to alter the current wind speed indicator. This is more forgiving than it may sound as the indicator just gives the maximum allowed speed rather than the required speed and it is always possible to travel at least one. Upon reaching a destination the player follows the instructions on the card which provide some background information and sometimes grant an extra turn, require a landing, etc. Occasionally, as in Elixir, a player may receive an extra advantage if able to answer a trivia question, tell a joke or draw a picture. The die also contains indicators for drawing Chance cards, which appear to be even-handed. The most significant of them are probably those which permit a player to trade a destination with one of another player or to immediately fly along a line toward the next destination. Overall it is a game with plenty of atmosphere and color, but probably not satisfying for strategists. It would possibly be of interest for those playing with young children. Rules (this site: English)
Six years later Jürgen Hagedorn and Hexagames presented this game whose title "200 Years of Hot Air Balloons" commemorates the bicentennial of the original 1783 ascent of the Montgolfier brothers. As they were French, it seems strange that so far we have not encountered a French game on ballooning topic, but we will remedy that later. This designer created several titles during the 1980's, none of which I have ever seen, including this one, although I have read the rules. According to German reviewer Andreas Keirat to whose review and picture I am indebted, this should be classified as a dice game. The board is circular and divided into ten concentric rings. Twenty-four "spokes" combine with them to form a grid. Players each have a wooden balloon which shows its altitude by stacking it up, insecurely it seems, on small wooden disks. They also receive at start four ascent cards and four descent (gas bottle) cards. A wooden arrow on a disk at the center shows the current wind direction. Players move by rolling two dice, a special one which describes a change in wind direction or a requirement on the player and an ordinary one which gives the amount to move. There are actually three games in one, all centered around getting a balloon to a specific location, the first two based on real life balloonist games: a chase or "fox hunt" and a target race. The third scenario describes a race to the center of the board. Andreas seems to feel that the game is average for a dice game, while giving high marks for the components apart from the cards. Review (Keirat/Luding: German)
With 1991 players no longer had to wait half a decade for a new balloons game to appear as three were due to appear over the next three years. Perhaps part of the reason was that the year's entry proved quite a successful one, being published in three different languages. The game seems to have begun life as a self-published effort by Nick Sewell (under the label Three Wishes) who did a few other games in the late 80's and early 90's, the other most recognizable names being Die Erbraffer and S.P.I.V.'s. The game was then picked up by Parker and published in the UK as The Great Balloon Race and in Germany as Himmelsstürmer ("Sky Stormer").
The game itself is one of tactics and bluffing, a bit in the style of games designed by Bruno Faidutti (Citadelles/Ohne Fürcht und Adel) and indeed he has a favorable review of the game at his website. The board is a curved track with whimsical depictions of European landmarks along the way. There are eight nicely-made large, plastic balloons, differentiated only by color (a potential problem for the color blind). Players do not "own" any balloon in particular, but are each secretly supporting a unique set of three of them as determined by a secret card dealt at the start. A turn is comprised of a die roll and a movement of any balloon. There are special spaces on the carefully-designed track which may send balloons backwards, back to the start or stop its forward movement. There are also special rules by which balloons may be bumped. A great deal of the interest here is in the bluffing and deduction. Obviously these activities can go on even on others' turns so there is very little "down time" between turns. Overall, although bearing relatively little connection to actual ballooning, this forty-five minute game is rather enjoyable, certainly much more so than might first appear. Review with Images (Trev: English) Review (Clarke/Billabong: English) Review (Keirat/Luding: German) Review (Faidutti: French/English) English Rules Translation
Balloon games returned definitively to the land of their birth with this game by Dominique Erhard (better known for Condottiere, Serenissima and at the time of this writing, the brand new Die Weinhändler) and published by Eurogames/Descartes. Re-released in 1999 with new artwork, it is my guess that this is the ballooning game best known in the United States today. It differs from all of the others discussed so far however in that now the race is no longer a lateral one, but rather to see which balloon can ascend the highest, in fact, as the board whimsically suggests, all the way to the moon.
Players familiar with Hol's der Geier or Raj will recognize the influence of Alex Randolph's ideas as each player starts with an identical set of cards, chooses a random subset and adds one card each turn. The higher the card played, the more likely one is to move up, but there are other interesting plays such as grappling onto another balloon, using soporific gas on lower balloons or storms which defeat the leaders. It can be especially interesting to compete against the non-player Black Baron who has been known to win the game from time to time, even playing randomly. All of this makes for a light psychological battle not requiring a great deal of thought or effort, but nice artwork and components make for a pleasant experience which doesn't last more than thirty minutes. For those wanting a denser game, we have successfully played a variant in which each player has the full deck of cards available from the outset. This adds to the strategy, especially with respect to cooperative play. Review with pictures (Dan Becker: English) Review (Oakes/Sumo/Game Cabinet: English) Review (Irons/Just Go Play: English)
Two years later there appeared another entry, again for children, and again about flying as high as possible. Designed by Manfred Franz for Jumbo, it was renamed as Wolkenstürmer (Cloud Stormer) a year later, perhaps because of the overlap with the game of 1991? This designer is also responsible for Die Schlangen von Delhi (The Snakes of Delhi) and Schweinerennen (Swine Race), also games for children. Nor are animals limited to those as here players must contend with crows whose deadly attentions may spell disaster for the daring balloonists. As in the previous game of this name, a player's support of a particular balloon color is secret, although here just of one rather than three balloons. Instead, each balloon has multiple colors depicted. The board shows several layers of air with specially-marked positions at which the crows begin. A turn consists of rolling a die which gives a balloon color. The player may move a balloon with this color up or sideways or, alternatively, move a crow sideways, the crows politely declining to change altitude. A third option is available if a crow happens to start the turn next to a balloon. In this case, the crow can be used to attack the balloon, after which it, having done its damage, retires from the scene, as does a balloon which has been twice attacked. As unfortunately I have been unable to ever encounter this game, I am indebted to the review of Andreas Keirat once again, as well as that of Peter and Birgit Koeltringer for the information here. Both seem to indicate that this is a pleasurable combination of bluff, tactics and luck lasting no more than twenty minutes. Review (Keirat/Luding: German) Review (Koeltringer/Luding: German)
Five years passed. Balloons flew and landed, no doubt trying to avoid crows and soporific gas along the way, but no new games could be added to the ballooning games ledger until this 1999 publication by F.X. Schmid. American designer Aaron Weissblum's other games are co-designed with Alan Moon: Knights of the Rainbow, Time Pirates and San Marco. This game breaks with its predecessors by abandoning the idea of competing balloons and instead puts all of the players into the same basket, one which is climbing through the clouds. On each cloud, the current player must roll the dice which show cards in four colors and two blank sides. Whatever cards are rolled must be matched by that player, but the other players may either jump off the balloon (and score points depending on how high the balloon is) or stay on, gambling that the needed cards will be played. If the cards are matched, the balloon continues to rise. If the match is not made, the balloon ride is over and all players still on the balloon score zero. Umbrella cards are "wild" and considered a match for the entire needed set. The "Pass the Barn" cards allow a player to force somebody else to make the match. Unfortunately my plan to try out this game fell through and I was not able to play it before completing this article. Thus I have relied here on the reviews of Dan Becker and Trevor Clarke, which describe the game as reminiscent of the Sid Sackson (Hasbro) classic Can't Stop, the similar quality being that players need to decide when to quit while they are still ahead, but differing in that card counting may help success whereas in the former, one is always at the mercy of the dice. Apparently this rather light game rarely lasts more than forty-five minutes. Review (Becker: English) Review (Trev: English)
In the same year, but only very recently brought to my attention, another ballooning game was published by Fun City Games, a Florida outfit, who were previously unknown to me. The games designer, D.J. Stamper, who also seems to maintain an on-line comic book shop, is also a new name to me. Production is reminiscent of the Cheapass Games approach to publishing, including only a rules set, cards and four large cards all monochrome to form the board. In an arrangement that must give pleasure to dice retailers, players must supply a twenty-sided die and a four-sided die for each player. As in Montgolfière, Himmelsstürmer/Wolkenstürmer and Cloud Nine the goal is once again to reach maximum altitude, but unlike the latter, the players are once again back in their own balloons (and represented by the four-sided dice). Airspace is divided into six vertical lanes with tossing out ballast (in the form of cards) being the primary activity each turn. Humorous imagination was applied in the naming of these items such as the kitchen sink, an encyclopedia, a refrigerator, etc. The same goes for the naming of the different balloon teams. A balloon rises toward its eventual goal of five thousand feet depending on the size of the ballast card. However, this card does not simply land on the earth — instead it will be more fun to try and hit another balloon via a "to-hit" roll which if successful, gives the ballast card to that player and forces his balloon downwards. In addition, it may hit a crew member, knocking him out and forcing out a piece of ballast, causing the balloon to rise again. Each player also has one dart and one dynamite which may be launched at an opponent instead. With the latter, unless the player happens to have the one nonflammable gas card (the gas cards are passed each turn), the balloon bursts and the team is forced to re-start from the ground. Players may be somewhat reminded of the game Skyrunner or even Devil Bunny Needs a Ham and the game may last a bit longer than players expect as it is relatively easy to burst other balloons and send them hurtling all the way down to the ground. Publisher (Fun City Games)
Although perhaps only dimly remembered now, 1999 also saw the world's first balloon circumnavigation. Except for those who followed its progress on the worldwide web, the drama of the race seems to have been little shared by the general public. In fact it was an occasion of high adventure hearkening back to the historic automobile and airplane contests of the early century, complete with diplomatic overtones, frequent mishaps and not a little genuine peril. Although a $1,000,000 prize beckoned, the typical team was to pay up front costs of more than twice that. This was to be a race not for the gold, but for the glory.
This is the departure point for this first game by Philip Vogt and, surprise!, myself. We found ourselves truly inspired by the balloonists' sense of adventure, the romance of ballooning itself and the many difficult strategic decisions involved. Publishing under the label Up & Away Games, we decided to posit the game as a more familiar race, one with a common start line and time. By the way, just such a real-life race is planned as an annual event starting in 2001. Philip's background in meteorology was invaluable in designing textless cards which represent actual weather and jet streams patterns. The balloons represented by stackable plastic pawns carry limited supplies of ballast, gas and fuel which must be carefully husbanded, just as the real ones are. Of course in every flight there are unfavorable winds and events and in the game these are for the most part triggered by the players, thus giving a way to slow down a leader. But it is not an open season to blow anyone off course at will as we rely on a color system to limit which balloon may be manipulated at any given time. (To avoid the most common red-green color blindness problem we eliminated one of these colors.) The successful player will use lookahead ability to successfully navigate this system and claim a virtual sip of the traditional winner's champagne. Publisher English rules German rules FAQ
With this game, we come to the end of our ballooning tour. Or is it? Are there more ballooning games in our collective future? Only time will tell. But one positive sign will have already been noticed by buyers of this year's Die Siedler von Catan: Das Buch (expansion kit for The Settlers of Catan) by Kosmos. In it are six colorful balloons as well as "Ballonfahrer" (Balloon Travelers) rules which can be added to any Settlers game, thus revealing another potential for ballooning in games, i.e. just add them as a variant to any of the games you're already playing. Perhaps some readers will come up with some very inventive ideas in this area. Who knows what excitement may develop!
Balloonacy by Walt O'Hara, 2003 Diceless miniatures game where the player controls altitude via ballast. Wind and Terrain are determined by card draw. Walt O'Hara Site
Subtitle is "Around the World Flight Air Race" shown on the cover along with three dirigibles, a ship and city. Includes four metal dirigible as playing pieces. Board shows various flight paths from New York to Paris including ones passing through South America and Africa. Also included are two dice and an 18x9" board. The back of the board was marked as for Checkers and a full set of pieces was included for playing this game. Said to be valued at over $200.
Ballonrennen
Fantastische Ballonreise
200 Jahre Montgolfieren
Montgolfière
Cloud Nine
Balmy Balloonists
