I may be more than a little obsessed with Harmonies. Since this beautifully illustrated tile layer first hit my table a few months ago I can’t seem to get enough of its absorbing 3D puzzle and cute creature cards. I’ve introduced it to several friends and bought copies as gifts for some of them – it’s such an easy game to recommend and a joy to teach to new players.
I’ve had enormous fun playing with two and three players, but the satisfaction of gradually building habitats to home my animals is so compelling that I’m desperate to play even when have no willing partner to play against. Fortunately for me, Harmonies comes with a simple-to-run solo mode so I can satisfy my cravings without having to rely on other people.
But what happens when you take away the competitive element of an opponent to outscore? While there isn’t a huge amount of player interaction in a standard game of Harmonies, there is just enough competition in the selection of tiles and cards to keep things interesting. So, how does the solo game of Harmonies stack up when you take away that source of tension? Can one person even make a harmony, or do you need at least two players for this game to really sing?
Solo setup
Setting up a solo game of Harmonies is almost the same as for a multiplayer game, you just have a bit less of everything. You start by populating the solo side of the central board which only has space for three sets of three tiles, as opposed to five sets in the regular game. Next, you deal three animal cards from the shuffled deck (rather than five as in a normal game) and place them next to the central board. The resulting display may feel a little sparse if you’re used to the larger selection in the regular game.
It seems a meagre selection of tiles compared to the regular game, but at least there are no other players to steal the set you want!
You can also opt to play with a Nature’s Spirit card which provides bonus points at the end of the game for a certain type and arrangement of terrain. The process for choosing this is the same as in the normal game: draw two Nature’s Spirit cards at random, choose one to keep and discard the other. I always choose to play with a Nature’s Spirit card as it helps with deciding which other animal cards to pick up.
Picking the mountain goat as my Nature’s Spirit card pushed me towards choosing other animals which need mountains in their habitat.
Solo gameplay
Solo Harmonies is a beat-your-own-score game so there’s no simulated opponent to manage – it’s just you against the selection of tiles and cards. This means that the solo game plays very smoothly, perhaps even more so than the regular game where other players can slow the pace or disrupt your plans by taking that one set of tiles or animal card you had your eye on.
Each turn you must take a set of three tiles and place them on your player board. You may also optionally pick one animal card from the display along with the number of cubes indicated on the card. You use the tiles to construct the habitats shown on the animal cards you’ve collected and, when you’ve successfully built a habitat, you can place one of the cubes from the animal card on it. The more cubes you remove from the animal card, the more points you score at the end of the game. You’re allowed a maximum of four cards at one time and, if you manage to place all the cubes from a card onto your player board, you free up a space to take another card from the display.
In a regular game of Harmonies, the selection of five animal cards on offer along with five sets of tiles means that there’s almost always a good combination of tiles and card to pick. Consequently, the display is refreshed frequently as players snap up the ideal cards for their board, often the ones you wanted to take for yourself! In the solo game, with only three cards available to pick from at a time, you may find that none of them quite suit the selection of tiles on offer. To prevent getting stuck with a set of cards you can’t use, if you opt not to take one during a turn you may discard one card from the display and replenish it from the deck.
At this point you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is going to be easy: no other players stealing that one set of tiles you want, or that animal card which fits perfectly with the terrain you’ve already built? Where’s the challenge?! There is, however, a catch. Unlike in the regular game where, at the end of each turn, you simply draw one new set of tiles to replace the set that was taken, in the solo game you must discard all the remaining tiles and draw three new sets. Even worse, the discarded tiles aren’t returned to the bag ready to be picked out again later, they’re removed from the game entirely.
Knowing that there’s a limited number of each type of tile available suddenly makes the decision of which group to pick much more agonising. It’s especially tense towards the end of the game when you can feel how few tiles are left as you draw a new set from the bag, “please let there be a tree-top in this one”!
The discard pile grows as the game goes on – will I regret leaving all those water tiles behind?
Solo scoring
A solo game of Harmonies ends either when you run out of tiles to refill the display, or when you have two or fewer spaces left on your player board and, just as in the regular game, this always feels like it happens way too soon! With no other players to worry about, you can attempt to delay the end of the game by building upwards rather than outwards but you’ll almost always be wishing for just one more turn to complete another animal card.
My poor wolf just missed out on a treetop tile to complete his habitat.
The initial part of scoring works in the same way as in the regular game: you gain points for the different types of terrain you’ve built, plus bonus points for terrain which matches the criteria on your chosen Nature’s Spirit card. You then add points for the animals you’ve managed to place in their habitats, scoring the highest number you’ve revealed on each card.
There’s one final step to scoring in the solo game of Harmonies which involves converting your regular points into “suns”. This mechanism balances your normal scores based on which side of the player board you used and which type of Nature’s Spirit card you picked, if any.
I’ve found my scores trend a little higher in the solo game, perhaps due to a combination of the free choice of animal cards and having more time to plan out the optimal tile placement without the pressure of other players hurrying you along.
To be honest, with no other players to compete with, I find the score often becomes less important than the delight I get from finding homes for all my animals. Ultimately, it’s difficult to get hung up too much on the final number on the scoresheet when the result of playing is as sumptuous looking as a full Harmonies player board.
Final thoughts
While you certainly can’t describe Harmonies as a high-stress game at any player count, the solo mode is, if anything, even more relaxing. Playing is a hugely soothing experience and the quick setup time and low-maintenance gameplay makes it ideal for unwinding at the end of a long day.
I was initially a little worried that the lack of other players would entirely remove any feeling of consequential decision-making, but being forced to discard unused tiles at the end of each turn ensures that it retains just enough bite to lend weight to your choices and make each turn feel meaningful.
Given the option, I would still almost always choose to play against other players. Even in a multiplayer solitaire game like Harmonies, I prefer the shared experience of playing together to gaming alone. But the wonderful thing about the solo mode is that I don’t need to rely on others to get my Harmonies fix.
Harmonies’ solo mode is a more laid-back version of the game I already know and love, and I’ve spent many happy hours engrossed in puzzling out the best placement for my animals. If you haven’t already tried it, I highly recommend this near-perfect harmony of intricate puzzle and relaxing gameplay.
Harmonies solo mode score
Overall 90
Ratings
- Artwork 5
- Complexity 2
- Replayability 5
- Player interaction 0 (not applicable)
- Component quality 5
You might like
- Beautiful components and stylised animal artwork.
- Satisfying 3D puzzle.
- Relaxing gameplay.
- Quick playtime and a “just one more game” feeling at the end of every game.
You might not like
- Low-stakes, non-competitive gameplay.
