Harmonies Board Game Review

Written by Charlie Pettit

What is the Harmonies Board Game?

There’s a trend recently encouraging a swing towards so-called cosy games. Generally, they’re small games, rarely overly competitive, and usually with some absolutely stunning art or colours. Constructing a quilt? Perfect. Making the perfect home for cats? Brilliant. Setting up a village of artisan dragons? Who wouldn’t want that. So when Harmonies came about, a small tile laying game from Libellud, the creators of quick to learn games with beautiful artwork (see: Dixit, Mysterium), I had high hopes… and delightfully, Harmonies met and exceeded all my expectations. 

We’ll start with how it looks – and the short answer is: gorgeous. It’s a really distinctive art style that prioritises colour, with stylised versions of the animals on each of the cards. It’s almost tricky not to pick animal cards based on how much you’d want them in general, but there is a strategy to it. Then the components themselves: quality tiles with a marker when you first unbox to say they’re recyclable (nice in general, even nicer when it’s in reference to animal habitats, though it is slightly dampened by the plastic bags that are functionally unnecessary when you also have a pouch for them to live in). It feels very considered. Someone loved making this game. 

Playing Harmonies

Practically, the game asks you to build the perfect habitat for the animals by laying tiles in the best combinations. It’s pretty straightforward. Animal cards tell you what combination of tiles will make up their habitat, and you’ll select tiles from the centre board (randomly drawn sets of three) which you’ll then place on your own board. The animal cards you pick are your choice, so no one is fighting directly for the same thing, and you can only have four – so choosing wisely or biding your time makes a real difference. Of course, more complex cards offer more points, there are cubes placed on the animal cards that represent the animals themselves, and there tend to be higher scoring points going for trickier combinations. Sure, you can place down a ton of bats really easily, but the points max out at less points than a few crocodiles.

You also get points for the tiles you do place, with how many fields you make, or what kind of river you end up with. Your habitats can also reach for the skies, as you can build taller trees for example, if you place enough brown tiles below a green tile, or you can build buildings on mountains or other tiles. It takes a few rounds to remember which ones can go on which thing, or which combinations warrant points but they do make sense – mountains only score if next to other mountains for example, because you never just see one mountain. However, finishing the game and realising you missed a combination just makes you want to play again. The game rewards this, with a slightly increased difficulty mode that offers Spirit cards, and a differently shaped game board (on the other side to the first) for when you want more of a challenge. 

New Gateway Board Game

What I think is the real miracle of this game is the feeling it gives you. When you’re at the early stages of the hobby, and you’re delving into gateway games like Azul, and Patchwork, these games are really satisfying, and therefore really thrilling. They’re straightforward to learn, challenging but not taxing, and they invite you to play again, and again… and then you’re down the rabbit hole of gaming. After a time, you can get a bit jaded about the games you once loved. Harmonies invokes that original feeling for me, despite no longer needing a game to bring me in (I'm already here). I love it, I’ve not stopped talking about it, and I’ve found an excuse to bring it to every game night since I got it. 

Play Harmonies?

This is a must-play game. It's cosy gaming at its very best. For a familiarly cosy game, you should try Patchwork or Azul, but it's puzzly nature is probably closer to something like Akropolis.

Buy Harmonies on Amazon

What's On the Box?

@tabletopmag Tile laying to create habitats, supported by gorgeous art and components? Yes, please! #ad #boardgames #tabletopgaming #boardgaming ♬ original sound - Charlie @ Tabletop Gaming Mag

Designer: Johan Benvenuto

Publisher: Libellud

Time: 30 minutes

Players: 1-4

Ages: 10+

Price: £34

What’s in the box?

• Central Board
• Pouch
• 4 Personal Boards
• Reminder Cards
• 120 tokens
• 66 animal cubes
• 4 Natures Spirit Cubes
• 32 Animal Cards
• 10 Natures Spirit Cards
• Scoresheet pad
• Rulebook

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