Harmonies: Crescendo
Harmonies: Crescendo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
This expansion contains:
- 10 double-sided Sanctuary tiles
- 4 double-sided Personal boards (New Personal Boards)
- 4 Reminder cards
- 10 Whisper cards
- 20 Whisper cubes
- 1 Rulebook
- 1 Scoresheet pad
Module Configurations
- "Sanctuaries" module using Side A (without Nature's Spirits)
- "Whispers" module using Side D (without Nature's Spirits)
- "Whispers" and "Sanctuaries" modules, using Side C (without Nature's Spirits)
- "Whispers", "Sanctuaries", and "Nature's Spirit" modules, using Side B
Sanctuaries
These spectacular landscapes can accommodate multiple animals as well as enhance the environment.
Sanctuaries are built by creating unique stacks of tokens that would normally not be allowed. Each Completed Sanctuary provides you with opportunities associated with its 2 token colors, both during the game and when scoring points at the end of the game.
Setup
Shuffle the Sanctuary tiles and place them to create a draw pile in the center of the table, with the In-Progress side facing up.
Then, draw 2 Sanctuary tiles and place them next to the draw pile so that 3 tiles are visible to the players.
Game Turn
When using this module, a new optional action is available: during your turn, in addition to your other actions, you may take 1 Sanctuary tile from the 3 available and place it above your Personal board.
Sanctuary tiles are treated just like cards; you can never have more than 4 cards and/or tiles above your Personal board.
At the end of your turn, if you took one of the 2 tiles next to the draw pile, replace it with the top tile from the draw pile (if possible). This will ensure that 3 tiles are always visible to the players, until there are 2 or fewer tiles remaining.
While you have a Sanctuary tile above your Personal board, you can create a single specific terrain stack that would not typically be allowed.
Example: Mathieu previously took the Sanctuary tile shown here. If he takes a blue token, he can place it on a mountain of height 2. He could not have done this before taking the Sanctuary tile, because placing water on top of a mountain is normally not allowed. Once that token is placed, Mathieu would not be allowed to place another blue token on a different mountain of height 2. However, he can complete this Sanctuary by following the specified pattern, placing a second blue token on top of the previous stack.
As soon as a Sanctuary is completed, flip the tile so its Completed side is face up, then place it next to your Personal board, so that it's visible to all players. Each Sanctuary is associated with 2 token colors and provides 2 advantages related to those colors: one during the game and the other during end-game scoring.
During the game, the final cube from certain Animal cards can be placed onto a Completed Sanctuary. When exactly one cube remains on an Animal card, and if its color matches either of the Sanctuary's two colors, you can take that cube and place it onto the Sanctuary (thus completing the Animal card). During the game, each Sanctuary can hold any number of cubes placed in this way.
If placing the cube on the Sanctuary stack itself would be too crowded, you may choose to place the cubes onto the Sanctuary tile; treat these cubes as if they were on the stack.
Example: After placing the second cube from this gray Animal card onto a gray token, only 1 cube remains on the card. Johan can immediately place that cube on top of his blue and gray Sanctuary, even if other cubes have been placed there previously.
Tallying Points
During scoring, each Completed Sanctuary earns you 3 points for each adjacent token matching either of the Sanctuary's two colors.
NOTE: You only look at the top token of each adjacent space.
Example: For the Sanctuary shown in this example the player would score 12 points; 3 for each adjacent space for which the top token is either blue or gray.
Additional Rules
- During scoring, Sanctuaries do not count as specific elements of a landscape (they are neither part of a River, Mountain, nor Field). For instance, the landscape depicted here does not represent a River of length 3.
- When tallying points for Buildings or for Sanctuaries, adjacent Sanctuaries are treated the same as other landscapes: only consider the top token of a Sanctuary, regardless of whether it is Completed or not.
- Sanctuaries can only hold Animal cubes; Nature's Spirit and Whisper cubes (see "Whispers") may never be placed onto a Sanctuary.
- You may take (and complete) multiple Sanctuary tiles throughout the game. There is no penalty for leaving a Sanctuary unfinished at the end of the game.
New Personal Board
Each side of the new Personal board features a unique layout and ruleset that encourages you to shape your landscapes in fresh and creative ways.
Setup
Before setting up the game, the players may collectively decide to play with either side C or D of the new Personal board. As usual, all players must play with the same side faceup. Each player takes the new Reminder card, displaying the side that matches the chosen Personal board.
Side C
On this side, there is no space at the center of the Personal board. Therefore, you cannot place any tokens there.
Buildings can earn you more points using this side, but to do so they must be surrounded by at least 4 tokens of different colors (instead of the usual 3).
Buildings – Side C: You score 8 points for each Building, but only if surrounded by at least 4 tokens of different colors (out of the 6 available, including red). As usual, only consider the top token on each adjacent space. If this criterion is not met, a Building is worth 0 points.
Example: the Buildings in the example score 8 points and 0 points, as marked on the page.
All other landscapes follow the same rules as when using Side A.
Side D
On this side, some spaces are dry at the beginning of the game. The other spaces are ordinary spaces.
A dry space becomes ordinary when it is adjacent to Water.
Fields and Trees earn you more points with this side, provided that they occupy ordinary spaces. However, you won't earn any points if the spaces they occupy are dry at the end of the game.
Trees – Side D: The height of each Tree determines the number of points you score on an ordinary space. The four Tree stacks, from shortest to tallest, score 0, 2, 4 and 9 points on an ordinary space; each scores 0 points on a dry space.
Fields – Side D: You score 6 points for each Field formed by 2 or more contiguous yellow tokens, provided that at least one of them occupies an ordinary space.
Example: the points for each Tree and Field are marked on the page.
All other landscapes follow the same rules as when using Side A.
Whispers
Discreet inhabitants of nature, the Whispers enrich any environment which they inhabit.
Place them in your landscapes to score points; have them coexist with your animals to score even more points.
Setup
Add the 10 Whisper cards to the Animal deck before shuffling it. Place the top 5 cards faceup next to the deck, as usual.
Place the Whisper cubes next to the Animal cubes.
Game Turn
Whisper cards have some similarities with Animal cards:
- On your turn, if a Whisper card is available in the center of the table, you may choose to take it instead of an Animal card, placing that card above your Personal board (provided you have fewer than 4 cards and/or tiles).
- When you take a Whisper card, place 1 Whisper cube from the reserve on each of its 2 spaces.
- After you have created the habitat pattern shown on the card on your Personal board, you may place 1 Whisper cube on the corresponding token within the habitat on your Personal board. This action is optional, and you may perform it multiple times, at any point during your turn. The token on which the cube would be placed must be free of any Whisper cubes.
- Once both of a Whisper card's cubes have been placed, put that card next to your Personal board. It is considered complete and no longer counts against your 4-card/tile limit above your Personal board.
However, there is a major difference: A Whisper cube and an Animal (or Nature's Spirit) cube may occupy the same space (regardless of the order in which they are placed). In fact, it is recommended that you do so to earn more points!
Tallying Points
Whisper cubes score points for being placed on your Personal board as follows:
- Score 2 points for each space containing a lone Whisper cube (without an Animal or Nature's Spirit cube).
- Score 5 points for each space containing both a Whisper cube and an Animal (or Nature's Spirit) cube.
There is no penalty for not removing all cubes from a Whisper card, other than it being worth fewer points.
Example: the lone Whisper cube is worth 2 points, and the space holding both a Whisper cube and an Animal cube is worth 5 points.