There are three things currently living rent free in my mind right now, Wicked, Spotify Wrapped, and Harmonies. In Harmonies, players craft cozy critter-filled landscapes by placing vibrant tokens to create habitats for their animal pals. 🦊🐻 To snatch the crown, you’ve got to cleverly connect those habitats and make sure as many creatures as possible call them home. The secret to success? Balancing your beasts with beautiful, bountiful landscapes—very demure, very mindful! 😉
Artwork and Components
Harmonies hit my gaming playlist the same way Moo Deng stole my heart—it’s an instant chart-topper. From the jump, it dazzles with eye-popping table presence. The illustrations are bold, the colors pop, and those 3D player boards? Chef’s kiss for immersion. And let’s talk about those screen-printed tokens—like perfect pawprints in the sands of a beautifully crafted game. 🌿 Every time I play, it’s like watching my board bloom into a vibrant, thriving ecosystem.
Gameplay
Harmonies is the kind of game that feels like a love letter to both strategy gamers and fans of satisfying aesthetics—think Cascadia meets Reef. Easy to learn but deceptively strategic, the game has you creating patterns on your board by placing tiles, scoring points in two clever ways: pre-defined patterns that award everyone equally and unique requirements on animal cards that can trigger big payoffs.
Here’s how it works: each turn, you can snag one animal card from the display and add it to your player area, which maxes out at four cards. Each card introduces a new pattern to aim for, and when you complete one, you place a cube on the matching habitat. The more cubes you place, the higher the card’s point value. Finish all its cubes, and it’s off to the “Hall of Fame,” freeing up space for new cards. (In my head, it’s like drafting your dream team, but for habitats—think Pokémon but make it eco-friendly.)
PRO-TIP: The real magic is in the combos. Completing cards with similar patterns can make your life easier and your score higher, but there’s a catch: each terrain token can only hold one animal cube. That means you need to juggle patterns, terrain availability, and future scoring opportunities. And while the rules are simple, the choices you make can have ripple effects that would make the Butterfly Effect proud.
The game ends either when the pouch of tiles is emptied or when someone fills most of their board. In our two-player showdowns, it was always the latter.
In true 2024 fashion, Harmonies feels like the tabletop equivalent of your favorite cozy game (think Stardew Valley vibes) paired with the strategic punch of your favorite tile-layer (Carcassonne, anyone?). Whether you’re into optimizing your moves or just vibing with patterns and animals, this game is a satisfying way to spend an evening.
Variants
The rulebook for Harmonies offers a few variants to shake things up, and honestly, they’re like the DLCs of the board game world—optional, but why wouldn’t you dive in?
First up is the double-sided player boards. Each side has different rules for scoring water tokens, adding a little spice to the gameplay without rewriting the Harmonies playbook. It’s like swapping between Chapell Roan and Charlie XCX courses—you’re still vibing, but now there’s a new twist to keep you on your toes.
Then there’s “Nature’s Spirit,” the expert mode of the game. In this variant, players start with two special cards from a separate deck, keeping one. These cards bring exclusive scoring opportunities, but there’s a catch—points only come if you can strategically place a lone white cube from the card onto your board. The rulebook suggests holding off on this variant until you’ve mastered the basics, but let’s be real—by game two, we were all about the challenge.
The puzzle aspect of Harmonies is always satisfying, and once everyone’s in the zone, games zip by in around 30 minutes. It’s not reinventing the wheel here, but much like The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift broke streaming records, Harmonies just works. Everything comes together like a perfectly balanced ecosystem—think Post Malone in Fortnight, but in board game form. It’s a perfect match for casual gamers, while still having enough strategic meat for the competitive crowd. In 2024 terms, it’s giving cozy-core meets min-max energy, and we’re here for it.
Verdict
For me, Harmonies has climbed the charts to become one of my top gateway games, playing on repeat alongside classics like Azul and Cascadia. Its easy-to-grasp rules, gorgeous visuals, and surprisingly captivating gameplay have it ranking high on my personal 2024 “Board Game Wrapped.” 🦅 Every playthrough feels like a hit single, and we’ve been vibing hard with this one. Highly recommend adding it to your playlist of must-plays!
