Goal of the Game

Welcome to the beautiful world of Harmonies! Your ultimate goal in this delightful board game is to become the master architect of the most stunning and harmonious landscapes. You'll be placing colorful tokens to create diverse Landscapes and then carefully designing Habitats for adorable Animals to settle in. The player who earns the most points by cleverly integrating these habitats into their landscapes and attracting as many animals as possible will win the game!

Preparation (Setup)

Getting started with Harmonies is a breeze. Here's how to set up your game:

1. Place the Central board in the middle of your playing area, making sure the "2-4 Players" side is facing up.
2. Gather all the colorful tokens and put them into the Pouch. Place the Pouch right next to the Central board.
3. Draw 3 random tokens from the Pouch and fill each of the 5 spaces on the Central board. That's 15 tokens total!
4. Shuffle the Animal cards. Deal 5 cards faceup next to the Central board, forming the display. Keep the rest of the cards nearby as the draw pile. Place all the Animal cubes within easy reach of everyone.
5. Each player takes a Personal board. As a group, decide which side (A or B) of the board you'll all be using. Remember, everyone must play with the same side faceup! Each player also takes a Reminder card that matches the chosen side of their Personal board.
6. Finally, decide who gets to go first! The player who has most recently seen a magnificent landscape (perhaps a majestic mountain range or a serene forest) gets to be the first player. Point the Central Board's arrow towards them.

Note for your first games: We recommend using Side A of the Personal boards and holding off on using the Nature's Spirit cards for now. Keep those cards and their corresponding cubes in the box for a few games to get the hang of things!

The Game Turn

A turn in Harmonies is all about building, attracting, and scoring! Starting with the first player and moving clockwise, each player performs the following actions in any order they choose:

Mandatory Action: Take and Place Tokens

You must perform this action exactly once per turn. It's the core of your landscape building!

• Take 3 tokens from any one of the 5 spaces on the Central board.
• You then place these 3 tokens onto your Personal board. You can place them however you like, but you must follow these rules:
  • A token can always be placed on an empty space.
  • You can stack tokens to create Trees, Buildings, or Mountains. This means you can place a token on top of 1 or 2 previously placed tokens. No other stacking is allowed!
  • You cannot place a token underneath previously placed tokens.
  • You cannot place a token on a space already occupied by an Animal cube.
• Important: After placing each token, you may perform any optional actions (described below) before placing your next token. This allows for some really clever plays!

Optional Actions (Perform Anytime, Once per Turn or Unlimited)

These actions can be performed at any point during your turn, even between placing individual tokens!

Take 1 Animal Card (Once per Turn)

This is how you get new animals to attract to your landscapes!

1. Choose 1 Animal card from the 5 faceup cards on the Central board.
2. Place that card above your Personal board. You can have up to 4 Animal cards (or Nature's Spirit cards, if playing with them) above your Personal board at any time.
3. Take as many Animal cubes from the reserve as there are spaces to be filled on your chosen Animal card, and place 1 cube on each of these spaces. These cubes will stay on the card until you can move them onto your Personal board.

Tip for beginners: Try to choose Animal cards with different colored stripes on their side. This reminds you which color token the animal cube needs to be placed on, and avoiding duplicates can make your first games smoother.

Place 1 Animal Cube (Unlimited Times per Turn)

This is where your animals finally settle into their new homes!

You can perform this action multiple times on your turn, whenever the conditions are met:

• The Habitat pattern shown on the Animal card must be exactly recreated on your Personal board. It can be oriented in any direction (rotated or flipped).
• The height of any Trees and Mountains within the habitat must exactly match what's shown on the card.
• The specific token on which the Animal cube is to be placed within the habitat must be unoccupied.
• If the habitat requires a Building, it can be of any type (meaning the bottom token can be red, brown, or gray).

If all these requirements are met, take the bottom-most cube from the Animal card and place it onto the corresponding token within the completed Habitat on your Personal board. Once the final cube from an Animal card has been placed, move that card to the side of your Personal board. It's now considered complete and no longer counts towards your 4-card limit.

Important Notes:

• A single token can be part of multiple Habitats!
• Once an Animal cube is placed, it's final. Even if the pattern forming the habitat changes later (e.g., you place another token on top of one that was part of the habitat), the animal stays put!

End of Turn

After you've finished all your actions:

• Draw 3 tokens from the Pouch and refill the Central board spaces.
• If there are fewer than 5 faceup Animal cards, refill the row so there are 5 cards available again.

End of Game and Scoring

The game of Harmonies comes to a close in one of two ways:

• The Pouch is empty when you need to refill the Central board at the end of a turn.
• At the end of your turn, there are 2 or fewer unoccupied spaces remaining on your Personal board.

When either of these conditions is met, finish the current round so that all players have had an equal number of turns. Then, it's time to tally up those points!

Tallying Points

You'll score points from two main categories: your Landscapes and your Animals.

Landscape Scoring:

• Buildings: Score 5 points for each Building (1 red token on top of 1 brown, gray, or red token) only if it's surrounded by at least 3 tokens of different colors (out of the 6 available, including red). Only consider the top token on each adjacent space. If this criterion isn't met, a Building is worth 0 points.
• Mountains: A Mountain is a stack of 1, 2, or 3 gray tokens. The height determines its points, but a Mountain is worth 0 points if it's not adjacent to another Mountain. (Specific point values for heights are usually on your Reminder card or the rulebook's scoring section).
• Fields: A Field is formed by at least 2 contiguous yellow tokens. You score 5 points for each Field. To maximize points, create small, separate groups of 2+ yellow tokens. A single large group of 4 or more yellow tokens still only counts as one Field worth 5 points.
• Trees: A Tree is 1 green token on top of 0, 1, or 2 brown tokens (creating sizes 1, 2, or 3). The height of each Tree determines its points. (Specific point values for heights are usually on your Reminder card or the rulebook's scoring section).
• Water (Side A - The River): A River is a string of consecutive blue tokens. The length of the River determines your points. Count the number of tokens from one end to the other by the shortest path (ends included). You only score your best river. If your river has more than 6 consecutive tokens, you score 4 points for each token beyond the 6th.
• Water (Side B - The Islands): If you're playing on Side B, blue tokens create Islands. Each space or group of spaces separated by blue tokens forms an Island. You score 5 points for each Island. You always have at least 1 island, even without blue tokens.

Animal Card Scoring:

• For each Animal card (whether completed or not), you score the number of points indicated in the topmost space that does not have an Animal cube on it.
• A card with all cubes still on it is worth 0 points. There's no penalty for not placing all cubes, other than earning fewer points for that card.

The player with the most total points wins the game! In case of a tie, the player who has placed the most Animal cubes wins. If there's still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Tips for Winning

Here are a few pointers to help you harmonize your way to victory:

1. Strategic Token Placement: Remember that a single token can be part of multiple Habitats. Look for opportunities to place a token that completes a pattern for one animal, while also setting up or contributing to another! This efficiency is key.
2. Don't Be Afraid to Stack: Stacking tokens to create Trees, Buildings, and Mountains is crucial for higher-scoring Landscapes and for fulfilling specific Habitat requirements. Plan your stacks carefully, as you can't place tokens underneath existing ones.
3. Balance Animals and Landscapes: While Animal cards provide a clear path to points, don't neglect your overall Landscape scoring. Sometimes, a well-placed Building or a long River can provide a significant point boost that complements your animal strategy. Keep an eye on the scoring conditions for each landscape type as you build.