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About Harmonies
Harmonies is a tile-and-token game about building a small habitat: you take three coloured tokens at a time and stack them on a personal hex board to make mountains, water, fields and trees, then satisfy animal cards that want particular shapes. It sits somewhere between Azul and Cascadia in feel, and it is one of the most approachable good games of recent years.
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Is Harmonies Right for You?
Best for
Harmonies is an ideal modern family game: fifteen minutes to teach, forty to play, and pretty enough that people want to pick the pieces up. It works for players who found Azul a little sharp, because you are mostly solving your own board rather than denying anyone else. Two and three players are the sweet spot.
Maybe skip it if…
Interaction is minimal to the point of being nearly absent, so anyone who wants to play against people rather than alongside them will find it flat. The stacking rules also reward spatial thinkers heavily, which can make it lopsided in a mixed group.
How to Play Harmonies
Setup
Give each player a hex board. Fill the central board with sets of three coloured tokens. Lay out the available animal cards.
On Your Turn
- Take one full set of three tokens from the central board.
- Place all three on your hex board, stacking where the colour rules allow, to form terrain.
- Optionally take an animal card, or place a cube on an animal card whose pattern you have just completed.
How to Win
The game ends when the token supply runs low or a player fills their board. Score terrain and completed animals; highest wins.
💡 Strategy Tips
You must place all three tokens. Taking a set with one perfect token and two awkward ones is how boards get ruined.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Taking a set for one token you want. All three have to go on your board, and two badly placed tokens cost more than one good one gains.
- Building terrain with no animal card in mind. Empty scenery scores something, but the animals are where the points actually are.
- Stacking too early. Once a mountain is three high you cannot change what is underneath it, and new players lock their boards in by turn four.
- Forgetting the board is finite. Space runs out much faster than expected, especially if you spread out rather than building compactly.
Advanced Strategy
- Read the available animal cards before your first placement and pick two you intend to chase. Reacting to what you happen to build is much weaker.
- Keep one flexible corner of your board unclaimed as long as you can, so a late animal card is not immediately impossible.
- Mountains are expensive in tokens but score well and free up adjacency. Do not avoid them just because they take three turns.
- Watch the central board refill. Knowing which sets are about to come back changes whether you take a mediocre set now or wait.
Variants & House Rules
Solo mode
A scoring-target mode included in the base box. Straightforward, and a good way to learn the stacking rules before teaching them.
Harmonies expansions
Small expansions add new animal cards and spirit modules for players who want a few more constraints on placement.
Video Guides
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Our Verdict
Harmonies is a very well-judged design that knows precisely what it is. It has almost no take-that, it looks lovely half-built, and it gives you a real spatial puzzle without ever making the table feel tense. When someone asks for something like Cascadia but a little softer, this is what we hand them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Harmonies like Cascadia?
Quite similar in feel: both are gentle tile-placement games about matching animals to terrain. Harmonies is more vertical thanks to the stacking and slightly lighter.
Does it work with four players?
Yes, though the central board turns over faster and you get less control over what is available. Two or three is better.
Is it good for children?
Very. The rules are simple, there is no player elimination and nothing mean happens. Around eight and up manages fine.