Hot Heads

In this battle, players draw one card on their turn and play one card. You may play these either to yourself or to an opponent. This way you help your own team rise, or you can sabotage an opponent. Cards with positive values raise your balloons, while cards with negative values lower them.

If a player draws a storm card, then the storm occurs. During this storm, all players must place cards from their hand in their own team. The number of cards to be played depends on the number of storm cards drawn in the game. Each storm card means playing more cards from your hand so that your hand becomes increasingly empty and your choices become more limited. When the fourth storm card is drawn, players place the remaining hand cards in their team, and the game ends.

When the game is over, the players add up the points for each type of hot air balloon in their team (4 total). The balloon per species with the most points picks up too much wind and flies into the storm as a result. Balloons that fly into the storm do not count toward the final score and are discarded. After the high-flyer of each balloon species is removed from the table, the players add up the points of their (remaining) team members and the one with the most points, wins the game!