HARMONIES WITH HARMONIES
The design story of a beautiful cosy favourite
Interview by Charlie Pettit
You’ve probably seen Harmonies around by now. When it launched onto the scene last year, we were an instant fan. It combines everything we love about board games – beautiful physical components, a non-aggressive competitive element, ent, catching artwork, and (most importantly) a whole lot of fun. It is cosy, with elements that remind us of Azul, Patchwork, , and even Splendor. Plus, we were very taken with the giant version of it at Airecon.
Harmonies at its simplest, is a game of building habitats for animals. You select which animals you want to build for, then try to create their new home from a pool of tiles available in the centre. Once the formation of habitats is built, you
can get points for putting an animal there – but different animals, and the number of animals placed, are worth different points. You can also score for things like a long river placement, or specific habitat styles – and all of this has to be managed with the finite space your board represents, and your fellow player/s inevitably nabbing the tiles you need. Once out of tiles or space, you score up.