Krajina zvířat: Crescendo (Harmonies: Crescendo CZ)

Krajina zvířat: Crescendo is the first major expansion for players who are already familiar with the basic principles of Animal Lands and wish to face new decisions whilst building their habitats. It adds further planning options without altering the game’s tranquil nature or significantly lengthening its duration.

You can play on your own or in a group of 1–4 players aged 10 and over. You should allow around 30 minutes per game. Thanks to its modular design, you can easily choose whether you want to simply tweak the familiar game slightly or combine several new elements to create a more challenging experience.

Crescendo builds on the spatial tile-laying mechanics of the base game Harmonies, in which you select coloured tiles, use them to form rivers, fields, trees, mountains or buildings, and create suitable habitats for animals. The expansion enriches this foundation with three modules, which you can use separately or combine with one another.

The ‘Sanctuary’ module allows you to create special stacks of tokens that would not be permitted under the standard rules. A completed sanctuary is linked to two landscape colours, can accommodate the final cube from the corresponding animal card, and rewards appropriately arranged neighbouring terrains during the final scoring. This gives you a new objective that you’ll need to plan for right from the very first moves.

Companions expand the animal deck with ten new cards. On each of these, you’ll find a pair of dice and a habitat pattern that needs to be created. A companion can occupy the same space as an animal or a nature spirit — it is precisely this coexistence that will earn you more points than a die placed on its own. You’ll therefore be looking for places where the requirements of different cards naturally complement one another.

The new double-sided player boards feature two distinct regions. On side C, the central squares are missing and buildings require a more varied surroundings. Side D features arid areas, which you can irrigate by placing adjacent water tiles. Trees and areas here may have a higher value, but terrain left without water will not earn you any points.

• Three separate modules allow you to tailor each game to the players’ experience — start with a single new feature, or combine all the parts to put your planning skills to the test in full.
• Sanctuaries disrupt the familiar rules of token layering and open up new ways to place animals, so you’ll view the selection of terrain and colours from a different perspective.
• Companions offer further scope for combining cards, as you’ll score the most points by having them coexist with animals or nature spirits on the same tiles.
• Double-sided boards not only alter the shape of the available landscape but also the value of buildings, trees and areas, thereby guiding you towards new building strategies.
• Irrigating dry fields creates a clear spatial challenge — each water token can unlock another section of the board and secure points for upcoming areas or trees.
• You can also combine the modules with Nature Spirits and other previously released components, allowing you to create a variant suited to your desired level of difficulty and the length of your gaming evening.
• Crescendo retains the colourful, three-dimensional landscapes and accessible rules of the base game, whilst simultaneously expanding the range of decisions available to players who are already familiar with their favourite strategies.

Krajina zvířat: Crescendo was created as the first major expansion for the game Animal Landscapes (originally titled Harmonies), which was released in 2024; as with the base game, the original publisher is the French studio Libellud. The design was a collaboration between French game designers Johan Benvenuto, the designer of the original Harmonies, and Mathieu Rivero, who is also a writer and translator. The artwork was created by French illustrator and art director Maëva Da Silva, whose work retains the gentle, natural atmosphere of the original game.

CONTENTS:

• 10 shelter cards
• 4 player boards
• 4 player aid cards
• 10 companion cards
• 20 companion dice
• 1 scoring sheet
• Czech and Slovak rules