With the new deluxe coming out, kinda makes the game feel old
Excellent components. Beautifully printed, chunky wood pieces perfectly cut. Absolutely unnecessary but a wonderful addition to the game.
A pretty little "thinking" game with nice quality material components, Harmonies is a serene game of building for points salad. It plays well with two people and is fairly addictive in that I'm still thinking days later of how I can improve my game next time. It gets better with each playing as you learn the patterns and understand the scoring. Win or lose, it's very satisfying to create habitats for your animals. The goal is to have enough animals points and while also maximizing the points for terrain. The score sheets make this very clear, which is really nice and makes tallying up after the game easier. If you invite a third or fourth to play, maybe set a timer for how long your "problem" friend with choice paralysis is allowed to contemplate their move.
Absolutely love CloudAge. It's super accessible, not too difficult to learn, and feels unique. The story is decent, however it is mostly there to support your actions in the game. The only reason I dropped 1 star is because of the scoring mechanics in the game, where I found it extremely difficult to score well in each of the chapters even after getting used to the gameplay. However, the scoring does not prevent you from completing and enjoying the campaign. I also found the normal rules a bit rough as a solo player, which can prevent you from gaining any resources at all when picking a resource card. Adding a small house rule of at least gaining 1 resource in those instances can be a life saver (and was approved by the designer on BGG). Overall though, thoroughly enjoy it and is part of my favorite games in my collection so far.