Balloon Cup

I've enjoyed Balloon Cup quite a bit, though I feel there may be a bit more luck than it initially seems, and certainly more than some other flag influence games. That's ok with me though. It's fun, and there is some opportunity for clever play. It's been pointed out that the whole mountains/plain flipping thing is artificial and irrelevant since you can play cards on either side. The mountains/plains thing isn't 100% irrelevant because of this rule, but it's really close. Supposedly, it is because of a change to the rules in the development of the game. Hearing about this change, coupled with the other change (3-for-one exchange), I decided to try the game by the "undeveloped" rules. Those being:

• Once a balloon of a color has been claimed, any further cubes in that color have no value. There is no 3-for-one exchange.
  
• You may only play cards on your own side of a particular "flag", until your side is filled up, at which point you may play on your opponents side.
  

It's still fun, and it's definitely a little different, as a hand full of extremely high or extremely low cards isn't always a good thing. I'm not sure how different it is, as the game still felt fun and light and seemed to come down to a bit of luck, but I'll play it again under the variant.