~Calendra~
::Reviews::
Let’s talk about Calendra by @librarium_games !
Calendra is a Celtic themed card game for 2-4 players. Each player represents a season of the year and plays cards from their hand in order to achieve certain combinations, win rounds and eventually win the game. This may sound easy, but trust me, it is not!
The rules of the game are simple, easy to understand and explain, but more than enough to make the game interesting and complicated! The abilities of the cards allow players to build a strategy and have more than enough options that can turn the game around when the others least expect it! You can swap cards with other players to ruin their combinations, you can use cards that drop the points of other cards to zero and you can even help another player win a round if that would prevent someone else from winning the game! There is so much going on at the same time and so many interesting ways to change the game, you always have to be on the lookout and adjust your strategy on the spot!
But wait, there is more! If you enjoy themed games that are not only interesting to play but high quality and a joy to have in your hands, Calendra won’t disappoint you! The box and the cards are absolutely beautiful! The art, the choice of fonts, the glossy finish, the size, the story written at the back, everything screams attention to detail and high quality! And it doesn’t stop there. The cards and the rulebook are not only high quality but also easy to use! The colors and runes make it easy to keep track of the game during play and the rulebook has everything you need in it, full with reference photos and examples. And if that’s not enough, you can find videos and FAQ in Calendra’s official website.
All in all, we loved this game and we can’t wait to keep playing and discover more strategies as we go! It’s clear that this was a passion project and I’m sure you’ll love it as much as we do!
We had the opportunity to check out Calendra by Librarium Games!! We absolutely loved this interesting take on trick taking / deck building. Each player plays as a one of the four seasons. The game is broken down into rounds where you are trying to win tricks and based on what you win you will be allowed to add cards to your deck. Ideally you want to add cards of your season to your deck making it stronger. When you have enough cards of your season you can go for the win. We played mostly with 2 players and found it to be easy enough to learn with plenty of decision making strategy.
Definitely check this one out.
Hayley’s Thoughts:
Calendra makes my Celtic heart happy, from the theme down to the card design. Fulfilling a mythical struggle as one of four seasons (plus another), vying for dominance by matching sets of runes, you’ll find there’s many different paths to victory. The cards are elegant and easy to learn, making for quick strategizing early on. It’s a great game for any season.
But I Don’t Want a Plague! 🧚
Calendra is a game for 3-4 in which players try to restore order to the seasons. Each player is given a card showing their season and the combinations needed to win a round or game. Ultimately, players are trying to meet one of the winning conditions using only their own season cards. The catch is that each player is dealt 30 cards at the beginning of the game and, for the most part, those are the cards you are working with. Players can use Changelings or Plagues to swap cards that are in play but, obviously, everyone is aiming to keep a card another player might need off the table!
Calendra has a lot of luck involved since that initial deal determines what you have to work with for the game. However, there is enough strategy and interaction that, except for a rare “bad” deal, players are given agency to change the course of the game.
Calendra is definitely best with four players. Since we usually play games at 2P we decided to also give it a go with each of us playing two seasons. It does work, though changes the strategy since a player can use one season to help their other to win. We tried our own variant where a player had to win with BOTH of their seasons to win the game, but we found ourselves stuck in a situation where neither of us could get that second season win so we don’t recommend that condition. It was enjoyable enough at 2P that we can see ourselves getting it to the table with just the two of us, but it will definitely get more play when we have 4 players!
The cards are beautiful and of the best quality. They are thick and have a lovely coating, which is great because they get a lot of shuffling. The artwork suits the theme well and the rich colours are lovely. If you have old eyes like me, download the PDF of the rulebook because the small stylized font in the box copy can be difficult to read!
Rob and I give Calendra 3 out of 4 meeples
Sláinte!
And if you know what that means then you probably want to get this game. 😉
Calendra is a quick-playing and highly interactive card game by Librarium Games that is dripping with Celtic culture and -perfect- for playing at the pub. The art and iconography are beautiful and, even more importantly, very useful during gameplay.
And how do you play? I’m glad you asked. In short, each person is assigned a season and is given the rules card in that color. All the decks of those colors are then shuffled together and each player is dealt thirty cards. They draw ten of them and then take turns playing down one card at a time either in front of themselves to meet one of the win conditions or on an opponent in an effort to prevent them from winning. But each card type has a special ability and you must follow its unique rules when placing it. Once a win condition is met using any combination of seasonal colors the round is over. Everyone gathers up all the cards on the table in their season, shuffles any other cards back into their deck, draws back up to ten, and then a new round starts! The game is won when someone is able to complete a win condition using only their personal seasonal color.
There is a -little- bit more to the game than that, but the rulebook is excellently written so I won’t go into it here. 😉
What I like about Calendra the most is the high interaction. Each quick-playing turn you have to decide if you’re going to work to achieve a win condition or prevent an opponent from doing so. But be careful of over using cards in seasons other than your own! Doing so will increase the odds of your opponents winning in the next round. It’s just enough strategy to keep you engaged, but light enough to allow conversation as you play and I love that. We had so much fun playing this at my friend’s house. AND! Those friends aren’t gamers so that tells you this game is very accessible!
But there were a few cons about the game for me. First, it can feel like it ends rather abruptly at times. There is an element of luck with the card draw that can make some games end in less than 10 minutes after only playing one or two rounds, while other games easily take the full 30 minutes.
On the other side of that though, that also means this game is easy to put away when your food arrives or your lunch break is over and you don’t necessarily feel bad about cutting it off without determining a winner. You got to play and have fun and that’s what matters.
The other thing I don’t like is that, even though it’s simple to learn, the strategy and style of Calendra is truly better suited to the 14+ age group. It’s not really a game for families which is why I won’t be backing it even though it’s a solid game. While Alex is working on possible 2-player variants, and I gave him some feedback on my experience with one of them so far, this game just really shines brightest at 4-player and without my kids that won’t happen much.
But seriously, if you’re looking for a high interaction game that plays in less than 30 minutes definitely check this game out!
An ancient Faerie has thrown the seasons into an upheaval!
Restore balance… Fado. Fado. It’s Calendra!
Players: 3-4
Playtime: 30mins
Rec. Ages: 12+
Publisher: Librarium Games
Thoughts:
Calendra is a card game with a Celtic feel and faerie theme. Over the course of several rounds of play you attempt to restore balance to the fae calendar.
Ideally played at 4-players (there is a 3-player format) each player is in charge of one of the 4 seasons and attempts to win the game by winning a round using only cards from their own season.
What separates this game is that there are many ways to win each round, so everyone isn’t always going for the same goal.
On each turn a card is played into one of two 5-card limit rows. The top row is the Garden, the bottom row the Court. Rounds can be won with any colored card, if you are the first to meet one of 4 conditions:
– Count & Countess in Court row
– 3 Queens, Beasts, or Changlings in Court row
– 1 Plague in Court and Garden Row
– 40 total points played
Each round winner keeps cards of their color they played, and can trade for another card of their color. First to win a round using only their own color wins the game!
I did play a prototype copy and the Kickstarter edition may feature updated cards and other game items.
Verdict:
Would be better with playmats so it’s easier to tell top and bottom row and how many spaces left, esp if someone has only played to one row. Available in Kickstarter but base game suffers a little w/o them. Cards & rulebook pages should be a little less dark. Text a bit hard to read at distance or not in bright light.
However the gameplay itself is refreshing and extremely variable with regard to strategy and multiple paths the victory. Rounds are over quickly so act fast! Card ability symbols also add another layer of fun. No two games are the same!
Over the past few weeks, Husband and I have spent some time playtesting Calendra, a quick and portable trick-taking, combo-building card game by Librarium Games Here’s our review:
🧝 Players: 2 to 4
⏰️ Time: 30 min (on average)
🎨 Art & theme: I was immediately drawn to the game’s colorful Celtic theme. It feels ancient and magical, and I love the simple yet striking design of the runes pictured on the cards. The theme shines through on the game box, which contains bits of lore, though I wish there had been more space for even deeper background and storytelling in the rulebook.
🎲 Components: The rulebook is clearly laid out and logical. The cards themselves are sturdy and high quality.
🧐 Gameplay: Each player is assigned a season and gets a small deck of cards plus a rulecard. The rulecard lays out 4 different combos of cards you can build in your season’s color to win the game. Some involve points while others require a certain structure.
It may sound simple, but there’s mischief involved! Players can steal cards from others or make opponents’ cards worth 0 points.
It plays well at all player counts. With 2 people, you have to really focus your strategy and pay attention to your opponent. The one issue we ran into at the lower player count is that sometimes it was hard to acquire more cards of our own season.
♓️ My rating: I really enjoyed how tricky the game can be! Now I really want to see more games developed in this world and with this theming.
♋️ Husband’s rating: This is a solid game that gets better as you play and learn how to strategize, though you do have more opportunity to use those strategies with more players.
✅️ Pros: high-quality cards, lovely theming, quick yet strategic gameplay
❌️ Cons: hard-to-read rulebook, 2- to 3-player rules are online rather than in the rulebook
♾️ Replayability: With 4 win conditions and random decks, each game feels pretty unique.
Disclaimer: All thoughts in this post are our own honest opinions based on our experiences.
Calendra! Go look at the product description for the specifics – Let’s cut right to the review!
Presentation (7/10) – It’s not everyday that a game that fits in the palm of my hand impresses me with presentation, especially when it has such a tight production budget. This game is like an old comic book; you know it’s printed on cheaper paper than a new comic, but it just looks nicer. Calendra is beautifully austere, which fits perfectly into its theme.
Theme (8/10) – The mechanics don’t allow much room for theme, but the theme comes through when it can. The drawings are interesting to look at, and the theme is apparent in the game, not just in a paragraph at the start of the rules. It’s also unique and educational.
Mechanics (9/10) – This game makes you feel like you’re playing a trick taking game from the first century. Somehow it manages to come up with unique mechanics that feel reminiscent of games like Polish Poker. In Calendra, players have to collect cards of their color into hand. This leads to all players having multiple conflicting agendas and less predictable play. It’s a very interesting mechanism with multiple layers of strategy that are innately baked into the game and not forced upon it by having extra rules.
Overall (8/10) – This is a lite game without much changing between games. It won’t be your next lifestyle game, but this is a game to pull out with family and friends. It’s time to pack away whatever nostalgic game like UNO you play while your Grandma bakes Christmas cookies. It’s time to replace it with Calendra! If you’re looking for a cheap game to play with family and friends, I recommend Calendra for you. You will not be disappointed! 
GUARANTEED FUN by the folks at Red Husky Games
Calendra is a card game🃏for 2-4 players published by Librarium Games. Thematically, Calendra is based on Celtic lore 📖 in which competing Faeries 🧚 are trying to win back their courts through trickery and deception.
Joe posted his unboxing 📦 of Calendra to our YouTube channel just a few days ago. Between the colors, 🎨 artwork, and quality of the cards, we were very impressed. The rules are simple and well-written as provided in the insert. As always with any card game of this type, we feel as if the optimal player count would be 4. It is sometimes difficult to truly get a feel for deception-like games with just the ✌🏼 of us.
With that being said, Joe and I still enjoyed the game. The theme is unique and gameplay is quick. We believe that this would be a great in-between-board-games during a game night with friends!
September 27th, 2022:
Super excited to see Calendra dropping on Kickstarter today from Librarium Games!!!
In this game, players start out with a rule card which will give them goals to complete. They will then play over several rounds, playing one card at a time until one player is able to complete the objective on their rule card. Cards are played in two rows of 5: a garden row and a court row. And cards have different abilities and combinations depending on where they are played in the rows.
Overall, this is a fantastic card game with vibrant colorful art and a twist on strategically playing cards to meet your goals. Make sure you check out the Kickstarter and show them some love!
Calendra by hits Kickstarter today! This is a card game best for 4 players (but with rules for 2 and 3!) that if you love crafting your deck and creating combos, this might be for you!
Based on the four seasons, each player is trying to create a combo of cards all in their season . Sounds easy, but it’s not! Cards have special abilities and holding on to your cards may prove difficult! Be sure to check this one out!