Harmonies Board Game Review

Harmonies, designed by Johan Benvenuto and published by Libellud in 2024, brings a satisfying blend of drafting and spatial puzzle-solving to the table. Players build colorful 3D landscapes and create habitats to attract various animals. Supporting 1-4 players aged 10 and up with a 30-45 minute playtime, this review examines whether Harmonies deserves a spot in your collection.

Harmonies Board Game Overview

In Harmonies, players draft sets of colored tokens from a central board and place them on their personal player boards to create interconnected habitats. The goal is simple: build the right terrain patterns to attract animals and score the most points.

What sets Harmonies apart is its vertical stacking mechanism. Tokens can be placed on top of each other to form trees and mountains, adding a three-dimensional puzzle element that rewards spatial planning.

What’s in the Harmonies Box

Libellud packs considerable value into a compact box. The components emphasize quality and visual appeal, featuring artwork by Maëva da Silva that brings each animal habitat to life.

The wooden landscape tokens feel lightweight yet sturdy, producing a satisfying sound when drawn from the linen bag. The amber acrylic animal cubes feature small bubbles inside, adding a unique visual touch. A built-in box organizer keeps everything tidy between sessions.

Harmonies Pros and Cons

How to Play Harmonies

Harmonies uses straightforward rules that lead to satisfying decision-making. Each game flows through a simple turn structure while offering strategic choices throughout.

Setup

Place the central board in the middle of the table and fill its slots with random tokens drawn from the bag. Shuffle the Animal cards and reveal five face-up. Each player takes a player board and places it in front of them.

Turn Structure

On your turn, select one set of three tokens from the central board and place all of them on your personal board. Tokens can be placed in empty hexagonal spaces or stacked on existing tokens following specific rules. Once placed, tokens cannot be moved.

After placing tokens, you may optionally draft one Animal card from the display. Each card shows a specific habitat pattern you must build on your board. Players can hold up to four Animal cards at once.

When you complete the pattern shown on an Animal card, remove one cube from that card and place it on your board matching the habitat location. More cubes placed from a single card score higher points.

Terrain Scoring

Each terrain type scores differently. Mountains score based on height but only if adjacent to another mountain. Trees need a brown base with green on top. Rivers score progressively more points as they grow longer. Fields score in pairs and cannot be stacked. Buildings require specific adjacent token colors.

Game End

The game ends when the token bag empties or any player has two or fewer empty spaces remaining. Players complete the current round, then tally points from terrain, completed Animal cards, and any Spirit cards used.

Harmonies Game Mechanics

Harmonies blends several mechanisms into a cohesive experience. Open drafting forms the core, with players selecting from shared token sets each turn. This creates subtle blocking opportunities as you can deny opponents the exact combination they need.

Pattern building drives the strategy. Each Animal card requires specific terrain arrangements, and planning how overlapping patterns can satisfy multiple cards simultaneously separates experienced players from beginners. The hexagonal grid and stacking rules add a spatial puzzle layer rarely seen in similar games.

Set collection appears through the Animal card system. Completing multiple habitats on a single card yields escalating rewards, encouraging players to commit to certain animals rather than spreading efforts thin.

The Nature’s Spirit cards included for advanced play introduce variable scoring conditions. These modify how terrain types earn points, pushing players to adapt their usual strategies.

Where to Buy Harmonies

Harmonies is widely available at major retailers with an MSRP of $34.99 USD. The game has won multiple awards including the 2024 Golden Geek Medium Game of the Year and carries the 2024 Spiel des Jahres Recommended seal.

Who Should Play Harmonies

Harmonies fits well with couples and families looking for a cozy game night experience. The 10+ age rating feels accurate, though younger players comfortable with spatial reasoning can participate with guidance.

Fans of Cascadia will find familiar territory here. Both games feature nature themes, tile drafting, and pattern-matching goals. Harmonies adds vertical building as its distinguishing feature.

Players who enjoy Azul will appreciate the similar tension between building your own position and denying opponents key pieces. The drafting mechanism creates that same satisfying push and pull.

Skip Harmonies if you prefer heavy player interaction or direct conflict. The game focuses primarily on individual puzzle optimization with only indirect competition through the draft.

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