Harmonies – Building Beauty, One Token at a Time

Hello everyone!

Today I want to talk about a game I don’t own, but have already played three times in a row. That says a lot, doesn’t it? The game is Harmonies, a beautifully illustrated tile-placement game where you build landscapes and create habitats to attract animals.

Game Overview

Harmonies is a 2024 release for 1 to 4 players, ages 10+, with a playtime of 30 to 45 minutes. It was designed by Johan Benvenuto and illustrated by Maëva da Silva and published by Libellud. The Portuguese version is published by Nebo.

The game received a Spiel des Jahres recommendation in 2024 and won the Golden Geek Award for Medium Game of the Year in 2024.

Theme

In Harmonies, you are an architect of nature. Your goal is to build beautiful landscapes and create the right habitats to attract animals to your world. Each player works on their own personal board, quietly shaping their own little ecosystem, there is something almost meditative about it.

How to Win

The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Points come from two sources: your animal cards, and the landscape itself, certain landscapes only score if they are together, like mountains.

Components

The components are lovely. The landscape tokens are made of wood, satisfying to handle and stack, yes, some of them stack to create 3D mountains and trees! The animal cards are tarot-sized with beautiful, detailed illustrations. Overall the production quality is high and everything feels intuitive just by looking at it.

Gameplay

On your turn, you draft coloured wooden tokens from a shared central supply and place them on your personal map board. The tokens represent different landscape elements, mountains, forests, rivers, and more. The combinations you create will determine which animal cards can settle in your habitat.

Animal cards are available in a shared river of five cards throughout the game. Each turn you may take one, but you can only hold four at a time. Each card shows a specific landscape pattern that must be fulfilled on your board. Once the pattern is met, the animal joins your map. If you manage to complete all the animals on a card, you free up a space to claim a new one.

The game is easy to learn and quick to teach, around 10 minutes to learn, 5 to explain, which makes it a great option to bring to the table with almost anyone.

Solo Mode

Harmonies includes a solo mode, which I have not yet had the chance to try, but it is definitely on my list!

My Experience

I played Harmonies three times in a row at two players, and enjoyed every single game.

What I love most is the strategy that quietly builds underneath the accessible surface. The more you play, the more careful you become when drafting tokens and positioning them on your board. You need to anticipate what might come out of the bag, plan ahead, and stay flexible when things don’t go your way. No two games feel the same because the animal cards that appear first will naturally pull your strategy in a different direction each time.

One thing worth mentioning: the landscape is quite abstract. If you are into it, you will happily imagine the mountains, the forests, and the river coming to life on your board. If that kind of imaginative immersion is not your thing, it might just feel like coloured tokens on a grid, and that is a fair observation.

My Rating

Rate: 8 ou of 10

Harmonies is an easy, familiar, and quick game that delivers a genuinely enjoyable experience. The production is beautiful, the gameplay is smooth, and the strategic depth sneaks up on you. It is not the most complex game I have played, but it does not need to be, it earns its score through consistency and charm.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for something accessible, beautiful, and with just enough puzzle to keep things interesting, Harmonies is an easy recommendation. It is the kind of game I would happily play again and again, and one I would not hesitate to teach to new players.

A couple of things to keep in mind before bringing it to the table: the interaction between players is quite low, you can influence others slightly by taking tokens they need, but mostly everyone is focused on their own board. If your group enjoys direct competition, this might feel too peaceful. There is also the card river limitation, with only five animal cards available and no way to refresh them actively, you can sometimes find yourself stuck with cards that don’t fit your strategy at all. It forces you to adapt, which can be a good thing, but a dedicated refresh action would be a welcome addition. Finally, players prone to analysis paralysis can slow the game down noticeably.

Your Turn

Have you played Harmonies? Are you a fan of this kind of peaceful, puzzle-like experience, or do you prefer something with more player interaction? Come share your thoughts on Mastodon 😊.

Videos

How to Play - Excellent how to play from Watch It Played