Harmonies Board Game Review

Harmonies manages to battalion rather a spot into a compact box, arsenic you'll rapidly recognize erstwhile you assistance the lid. Inside, you'll find 3 abstracted rulebooks successful English, French, and German, on with QR codes that nexus to speedy video overviews successful English, French, German, and Italian.

Beneath the acquisition booklets are 4 sturdy, double-sided subordinate boards and a double-sided cardinal committee utilized for drafting tokens during gameplay. Each acceptable of colorful woody tokens comes packaged successful its ain integrative container for enactment during shipping, but you'll apt find it easier to store them each unneurotic successful the included linen drawstring pouch. The tokens themselves are high-quality, amazingly lightweight, and marque a satisfyingly tactile dependable arsenic they rattle astir successful the bag.

The container includes a built-in organizer to support components tidy earlier and aft gameplay. One broadside of the organizer features a folding cardboard lid that holds a platform of Animal and Nature’s Spirit cards, on with a container of tiny integrative orangish and wide cubes that correspond the animals. Like the container itself, the cards showcase vibrant, stunning artwork of assorted animals successful their earthy habitats.

Also included are 4 double-sided notation cards – 1 for each subordinate – that summarize however each biome is scored and supply a speedy number of however galore woody tokens beryllium successful each color. A small, colorful scoring pad makes it casual to tally up points astatine the extremity of the game.

While the built-in organizer is simply a invited touch, you’ll request to springiness the woody tokens successful the linen pouch a speedy shingle and settee to get everything to acceptable properly; otherwise, the lid won’t beryllium flush with the box. That said, setup and teardown are incredibly fast, arsenic determination aren’t excessively galore components to negociate overall. Once everything’s packed distant neatly, the compact container tin beryllium stored either horizontally oregon vertically connected a support without immoderate interest of components shifting oregon spilling inside.

Rules and How It Plays

The extremity successful Harmonies is to make a bid of interconnected habitats for your animals by drafting and placing tokens connected your subordinate committee to gain the highest score. After a speedy setup, the archetypal subordinate chooses a acceptable of 3 randomized tokens from the cardinal committee and places each of them connected their idiosyncratic committee successful immoderate statement they like. However, erstwhile a token is placed, it can't beryllium moved for the remainder of the game.

What makes Harmonies basal retired is the quality to stack definite tokens, introducing a consciousness of verticality to the committee and offering further scoring opportunities if circumstantial conditions are met.

For example, brownish tokens tin service arsenic the basal of a tree, but they don’t people connected their ain unless a greenish token is placed connected top. Mountains, built utilizing 1 to 3 grey tokens, lone people if they're adjacent to astatine slightest 1 different mountain. Fields, represented by yellowish tokens, people successful pairs of 2 oregon much and can’t beryllium stacked, portion rivers (blue tokens) people progressively much points the longer you tin link them. Buildings are the astir analyzable to grasp astatine first; they necessitate a basal token – either brown, gray, oregon reddish – topped with a reddish token, and they people a level fig of points if astatine slightest 3 uniquely colored tokens are adjacent.

While this unsocial would marque for an absorbing game, the existent strategy emerges from drafting Animal cards. Each paper features a circumstantial configuration of tokens on the bottommost that represents a unsocial situation required by that animal. For instance, an alligator mightiness request a swamp made up of a histrion and a tiny stream beside it, portion meerkats similar a rocky operation adjacent to a field.

On each player’s turn, they person the enactment to draught 1 of the 5 disposable Animal cards and adhd it to their tableau, on with a acceptable fig of carnal cubes that bespeak however galore times the depicted situation indispensable beryllium built. Each clip you successfully make the situation shown connected the card, you region the bottommost carnal cube and spot it onto your subordinate board, matching the situation arsenic pictured. As you region cubes, you’ll gain an expanding fig of points.

There’s nary punishment for failing to implicit an Animal card, but since you’re constricted to 4 cards successful your tableau astatine a time, choosing strategically is important. While it whitethorn beryllium tempting to drawback a clump of carnal cards early, you whitethorn find it hard to implicit the required habitats and miss retired connected invaluable points.

The existent strategy successful Harmonies lies successful optimizing the layout of habitats connected your subordinate committee – maximizing the fig of Animal cards you tin implicit portion besides keeping the basal scoring of each biome successful mind. At its core, Harmonies is an elegant optimization puzzle that presents a caller situation each clip you play. While each subordinate is chiefly focused connected their ain idiosyncratic board, there’s inactive a just magnitude of interactivity, arsenic you tin artifact opponents from drafting definite sets of tokens oregon Animal cards that would perfectly complement their habitats.

At the extremity of each turn, players replenish the 3 tokens they took with a random gully from the pouch and uncover a caller Animal paper if they drafted one. This changeless churn forces players to enactment flexible – there’s seldom a accidental to program excessively acold ahead, particularly successful higher subordinate number games wherever much turns hap betwixt your own. That unpredictability is precisely wherever Harmonies shines. Each crook carries a subtle urgency: you’re racing to implicit arsenic overmuch arsenic you tin connected your committee earlier the crippled ends, each portion juggling astute decisions and businesslike token placement.

In the aboriginal rounds, it’s not uncommon to person a well-optimized subordinate committee that lets you draught Animal cards and people them immediately, without needing to physique further habitats. It’s a profoundly satisfying payoff that rewards cautious readying and tin gain you immoderate speedy points arsenic you propulsion toward the extremity of the game.

The crippled ends erstwhile the pouch runs retired of tokens oregon erstwhile immoderate subordinate has 2 oregon less unoccupied spaces near connected their board, triggering the last round. After that, players tally up their points and state a winner.

Once you're comfy with the basal game, determination are a fewer optional elements you tin adhd successful to shingle up the gameplay. The archetypal is the inclusion of Nature’s Spirit cards. At the opening of the game, each subordinate drafts 1 of 2 cards, each of which tasks you with gathering and completing a circumstantial situation successful bid to unlock an alternate scoring method for a peculiar biome. For example, you mightiness gain other points for gathering larger clusters of a circumstantial terrain type, oregon for reaching definite heights with mountains oregon trees. These cards present caller scoring opportunities and promote you to rethink your accustomed strategy.

There’s besides a secondary broadside of the subordinate committee that changes however rivers score. Instead of creating 1 long, connected river, you’ll request to signifier islands by isolating sections of onshore with h2o tiles, adding different furniture of spatial readying to the puzzle.

Harmonies besides includes a dedicated solo mode that offers a airy score-chasing situation with immoderate amazingly crunchy decisions, each wrapped up successful a speedy 10–20 infinitesimal playtime. The extremity successful this single-player variant is to cod arsenic galore suns arsenic imaginable – a full based connected your last score, the committee broadside you used, and whether oregon not you played with Nature’s Spirit cards.

Where to Buy Harmonies

• Amazon
• Walmart

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