Grendel The Game of Crime and Mayhem: Prototype Review.
A Gritty Clash of Factions in the Streets of New York
Grendel: The Game of Crime and Mayhem is a highly asymmetric, mid-weight strategy game for 2–4 players, designed by Sen-Foong Lim and Alara Cameron. Set in a stylized version of New York City teetering on the edge of chaos, the game casts each player as one of four unique factions fighting to control the city before sunrise. Grendel, a deadly assassin, faces off against his nemesis Argent the werewolf, the entrenched Mob, and the ever-watchful Police. Each faction comes with a completely distinct gameplay system, making this a rare case where asymmetry is not just a feature — it’s the core experience.
While the game delivers on theme and character, it also manages to remain mechanically approachable. Within a few rounds, players will have internalized their roles and started to find their rhythm. The game’s real tension comes not from complex rules, but from how cleverly those systems collide.
Strong Asymmetry without Overcomplication
One of Grendel‘s key selling points is how cleanly it handles asymmetry. Each faction operates on its own mechanical engine, and yet all four are easy to grasp after just a few turns. Grendel builds combos using a bag-building system that rewards long-term planning. Argent pushes his luck each round by flipping cards and trying to avoid busting. The Mob allocates dice across criminal activities, while the Police use a rondel system to coordinate movement and arrests.
While this kind of asymmetry often risks imbalance or confusion, Grendel manages to avoid both. None of the factions feel too dominant or too weak. Each one rewards a different playstyle and brings its own strengths and vulnerabilities. This variety makes for a dynamic and shifting experience, especially in full 4-player games.
Grendel: Tactical Control through Fear
Playing as Grendel is a methodical and rewarding experience. You draw chits from a personal bag and place them across three tracks representing your abilities: movement, attack, and manipulation. The placement system is clever — you not only activate the ability where the chit lands but also all previous abilities in the row, creating potential combos.
The system encourages efficiency, and once you’ve placed four chits on a single track, you upgrade your bag, slowly tilting the odds in your favor. Thematically, it works well. Grendel is the unseen predator, darting between city blocks, spreading fear, and striking when opponents least expect it. As your bag improves, you start to feel that evolution — moving faster, hitting harder, and gaining more control over the map.
Argent: Push-Your-Luck Precision
Argent plays completely differently. He’s the chaos to Grendel’s calculation. Each round, you flip cards from your deck one by one, trying not to reveal too many skulls — bust, and your turn is over. But if you stop in time, you activate all face-up abilities. It’s a mechanic that creates constant tension and smart risk-taking.
His deck can also be customized by buying new cards and trashing weak ones, making Argent the only faction with long-term deck-building. Mechanically, he feels volatile but sharp. When you get the right cards and land just enough aggression before stopping, you feel like a true predator — setting ambushes, teleporting across the map, and catching other players off guard.
The Mob: Territory through Numbers
The Mob faction is built around growth and presence. You roll four dice, allocate three of them, and execute actions based on their results. Dice placement determines how many captains and grunts you deploy, how much corruption you spread, and whether you reinforce, extort, or expand.
What’s impressive here is how quickly the Mob can flood the board. With the right upgrades, a Mob player can dominate zones, build aggressive networks of corruption tokens, and apply pressure to all other factions. Yet it never feels overpowered — the Mob’s power lies in expansion, not precision. Smart opponents will use mobility and targeted punches to break up their influence. This keeps the Mob honest and reactive.
The Police: Strategic Control through Order
Unlike the other factions, the Police don’t deploy chaos — they bring structure. Every round, the Police move two squad cars across a rondel, selecting wedge actions to deploy forces, draw cards, arrest enemies, or place wagons (their influence tokens). The rondel creates clear planning paths, but also limits your flexibility, forcing careful timing.
Their most unique action — arresting — can remove enemy figures from the board and power up your own abilities. Arresting also adds a rewarding mini-engine: each jailed figure boosts a specific Police action. That makes smart arrests both a tactical and economic move. The Police reward slow build-up and area control. While they may lack the raw aggression of other factions, their methodical play style allows them to dominate zones when left unchecked.
Mayhem Phases: Where Everything Collides
Each game of Grendel is divided into Planning and Mayhem phases. As players accumulate aggression in city towers, they eventually topple — triggering a Mayhem. During these sequences, players spend aggression points to move, punch, play cards, or degrade influence tokens, all within a specific zone.
What makes these phases so compelling is how they reset the tone of the game. Planning is all about careful development. Mayhem is pure confrontation — short, snappy, and filled with tough decisions. You only get three aggression per turn, so timing matters. Go all in on one big attack, or spread your influence to maximize scoring? All the while, you’re watching for zones where three factions are present, which block all players from scoring. It’s an elegant way to keep the violence strategic rather than chaotic.
Smart and Interactive Scoring
Scoring in Grendel ties directly into faction presence. Each faction scores in a slightly different way: Grendel earns points where Fear tokens exist, Argent for Ambushes, the Mob for spaces with two different Mob pieces, and the Police when they outnumber others. But if three or more factions are present in the same space, no one scores.
This rule is crucial. It means the game naturally pushes players into smart territory management and indirect conflict. Often, the best move isn’t to attack — it’s to step into a space and block scoring. This adds a level of subtle interaction that elevates the game far beyond a brawler. Positioning, timing, and bluffing matter more than brute strength.
Component Quality and Visual Design
Even in prototype form, Grendel shows real promise when it comes to production value. The 3D towers are more than just gimmicks — they’re functional timers that add visual drama when they fall. Each faction has a distinct color and miniature style, making them easy to recognize on the board.
The map itself is cleanly divided into three zones, but still manages to feel alive with detail. Iconography is straightforward, faction boards are easy to navigate, and the rulebook — while early — does a solid job explaining each mechanic without overwhelming the reader. We’d love to see deluxe materials or upgraded chits in the final edition, especially for players who enjoy a bit more table presence.
Game Length, Setup, and Learning Curve
One of Grendel’s strengths is how quickly it gets going. Setup is relatively fast for an asymmetric game, and turns flow quickly once players know their factions. In our playthroughs, the full game consistently landed in the 90–120 minute range with four players, often shorter with fewer.
Teaching is straightforward, especially with the faction-by-faction introduction method outlined in the rulebook. New players can be taught just their own faction to start, which keeps things manageable. After a few turns, everyone naturally begins to understand what others are doing — which leads to more counterplay and reactive strategies.
Replayability and Group Fit
With four fully asymmetric factions and multiple strategies within each, Grendel has solid replay value. Rotating who plays what dramatically shifts the game’s tempo. Grendel and Argent bring focused, individual arcs. The Mob and Police add area control, spreading presence and regulating flow.
The game plays best at 4, where all factions are present and interactions shine. That said, 3-player games still offer strong dynamics, especially if Argent or Grendel is in play. The only potential downside is player count rigidity — the game doesn’t stretch beyond 4, and 2-player matchups, while possible, don’t offer the same depth.
Theme and Atmosphere
While Grendel is not story-driven in a traditional sense, it oozes theme. The city map, the distinct mechanics, and the smart use of influence tokens all reflect the game’s gritty setting. Every faction has a clear identity and visual consistency — from the Mob’s creeping corruption to Argent’s hidden ambushes.
What’s most impressive is how the mechanics create the theme, not just reflect it. You don’t just pretend to be a crime lord or vigilante — you play like one. Actions speak louder than narrative here, and the emergent drama between factions feels just as cinematic as any scripted plot.
Verdict
Grendel: The Game of Crime and Mayhem is a smart, asymmetric strategy game that combines bold thematic ideas with clean, satisfying mechanics. Each faction offers a completely distinct way to play — yet the game remains accessible and fluid across all player counts. Mayhem phases are tight and tense, rewarding planning and precision, while the scoring system encourages smart positioning over constant aggression.
What sets Grendel apart is how it blends theme with structure. It doesn’t just wear its setting — it builds it into the rules. Whether you’re lurking in the shadows as Grendel, flipping risky ambushes as Argent, spreading like a stain as the Mob, or patrolling as the Police, your role feels earned and impactful.
If you’re looking for an asymmetric game that doesn’t overstay its welcome, delivers real interaction, and keeps you thinking long after the final punch — Grendel is a title worth watching.
– David & Greg
Hype & Hopes: 8.5/10
