Factory 42: Specialists & Golems Expansion Board Game Review

Factory 42: Specialists & Golems

WBG Score: 8.5/10

Player Count: 2-6

You’ll like this if you like: Biege euros with cubes!

Published by: Dragon Dawn Productions

Designed by: Ren Multamäki

This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.

You can check out the how to play and review of the base game here. But for this expansion, read on!

Factory 42 is a fantastic euro game that is full of great decisions, tight gameplay, and delightfully curated resource management. If you like euros, then this is well worth checking out. The theme is a big funny, and its obviously VERY brown, but c'mon! Its a Euro. What did you expect.

Anyway, Factory 42 came out in 2021. And in 2024, the same designer released this expansion, Specialists & Golems. It makes the game playable up to six now, (previously 5) it amends the Spiking action, develops the Incinerator, Crane, and Steam Tank power, and introduces four new elements that we will go through one by one here to see if this is a good fit for you. So, with that said, lets get this to the table to see how it plays.

How To Set Up Factory 42: Specialists & Golems

Factory 42’s expansion is modular, so you can mix and match elements or throw them all in for the full experience. To get started, place all the new components you are using out on the table: the Golems, Specialists, and the updated tiles for the Patriot Box, Calendar Clerk, and Spiking Commissariat.

To include the revised Spiking rule, replace the original Spiking tile with the upgraded version. The Commissar action now has an additional bonus to take an extra cube to make the Spiking action more balanced.

If you're playing with six players, the expansion includes everything you’ll need to accommodate the extra player right out of the box.

How To Play Factory 42: Specialists & Golems

Golems

This expansion brings in new characters and effects that shake up the rhythm of play in clever ways. Each player can build a Cargador through Research for a cost of two Iron and one Steam, placing it on the board rather than their mat. They act as an extra worker, but once placed, don't move!

Golems are metallic workhorses that occupy one of the numbered placement slots, but never the first or as a Commissar, and once placed, they don’t move unless you spend Steam to shift them. That cost can even be paid to move an opponent's Cargador, making for some wonderfully petty manoeuvres. They don’t count as regular workers but act as extra hands for the factory floor. If you’ve upgraded with a Crane, moving your own Cargador becomes free, but it still takes an action.

Specialist

Each player can optionally acquire a Specialist during the game, but only one per player. Specialists are premium workers who break the placement order rules. You buy them for one Beer and they replace one of your regular Workers. From then on, they can be placed on any numbered slot, regardless of what’s already there. They don’t act like Commissars but do count as Workers in most other respects.

Patriot Box

The Patriot Box gives you a cheeky bonus. Place a worker here and not only can you take an Operate action, (see full game explanation) but you also gain a free large good. It immediately closes the Black Market for the round, flipping the tile to its standard side.

Calendar Clerk

The Calendar Clerk gives you more event control. When you place a worker here, you can take an Operate action and then either draw a fresh Event or cancel an existing one. This lets you inject chaos or restore order with precision.

Steam Tank

The Steam Tank is a new token you can add to your payer board. It lets you store two additional steam tokens. You can purchase this during the research phase to develop your engine.

Is It Fun? Factory 42: Specialists & Golems Expansion Board Game Review

The Golems are a brilliant thematic fit. They are stubborn, bulky, efficient, and mechanical, just like the bureaucracy they serve. Adding one feels like unlocking an extra gear in your strategy engine. They offer you another presence on the board and can stick around like a little thorn in everyone’s side. The fact that they can be used against you adds just enough tension to keep your placement game sharp, and make this euro sing with even more theme and gripping strategy. I adore them.

Specialists, meanwhile, introduce flexibility in a worker placement system that usually thrives on restriction. Their ability to skip placement order rules makes them feel powerful and refreshing. Suddenly, that crucial slot is within reach, and your plans aren’t so easily derailed. It’s the kind of addition that advanced players will love, but it’s simple enough to slot into the base game without overwhelming new players. It fixes the issue worker placement games like this have, where when you are blocked, and you know the other player did it deliberately as they knew what you wanted to do, you think fair enough. But when they do it by accident, and they don’t even really need to do that action that much themselves, it can be infuriating. That frustration is now greatly reduced. But it's only one specialist per player. So you still have the tightness and tension.

The bonus tiles, Patriot Box and Calendar Clerk, are flavourful and tight. They offer small, impactful choices that ripple outward, especially in games with five or six players. Whether you’re spiking for extra resources, shutting down the Black Market, or rewriting events mid-round, these options bring that extra sprinkle of dystopian spice to a game already rich in theme and tension.

Pros:

• Expands player count to 6 with ease.

• Modular elements allow custom setup and replayability.

• Golems and Specialists create new strategic layers.

• Enhances narrative and theme without overcomplicating core mechanics.

• Event control and market manipulation add clever player interaction.

Cons:

• Rules can be fiddly to remember in early plays already, let alone with these new sprinkles!

• More players mean longer game time and added downtime.

• Some modules may feel unnecessary if you prefer a tighter base game.

  
  

Final Thoughts On Factory 42: Specialists & Golems

This expansion to Factory 42 doesn’t just build on what came before, it subtly reshapes the game’s power dynamics. By introducing persistent board presence with the Golems, flexible placement through Specialists, and tools for direct market and event manipulation, it makes the industrial grind feel more alive and unpredictable. For those who already appreciate Factory 42's satirical tone and tactical planning, the expansion lets you lean further into the politics and machinery of Odrixia. But more than that, it begins to shift the feel of the game from one of linear escalation to one of calculated asymmetry. Each player's factory begins to operate just a little differently, and in a game about strict state control and uniformity, that little difference can spark some very big changes.