Board Game Arena

Battleships to be specific. What is with this trend of games that are essentially multiple players putting their own puzzle together? Its not really in the spirit of what I consider a game to be.

Is Harmonies the most interactive game out there? Certainly not.

Are there matches where focusing solely on your own puzzle is the correct play? Yes, but they are quite rare. Also worth noting that "sole focus" here means that all your actions aim to maximize your score, you still need to study your opponent's board to reach that decision.

In vast majority of (two player) matches winning requires some level of interaction. Considering how the game works, the interraction means different forms of blocking; denying animals or denying tiles (either simply taking what opponent needs or controlling the extra tiles they get).

Trend? There are over 1000 released games, with all types of interactivity. Some people (probably you) like more interactive games, others complain bitterly when the opponent "maliciously blocks" them , they'd probably be pleased with a game like this.

I see you played 4 games of Harmonies, maybe you played more games already somewhere else. I can tell you that you have to care deeply about your opponent's moves and their strategy if you want to get any good at this game. It's not enough to build up your own board.

The cool thing about Harmonies is that often you do have a chance to react to your opponent. A lot of other games have somewhat superficial interaction in the sense that people can block each other and that's about it. Whoever gets the best spots/cards/rolls can gain a huge advantage. In Harmonies though, the 2nd-best or 3rd-best option for yourself and your opponent is often very viable and you have to think about it. Sometimes, one player gets heavily favored by luck but more often than not, it is a game of counteraction after counteraction.

It’s more accurate to say that this is a puzzle game where both players are picking their pieces from the same source, and they have to make sure the other player doesn’t create a better puzzle than theirs.