Board Game Arena

I see the new factions are available in the menus for setting up a game. However, even in games where the new factions are set as available AND players choose factions, I haven't been able to select the new factions and I haven't yet seen them in play despite joining a few games now where the new factions have been enabled.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Please provide a link to the replay of such an occurrence and tell us the move number where you were choosing.

My personal bet is that you're trying to choose a faction that's not available by virtue of which factions have already been chosen. For instance, if two people chose smugglers, you can't then choose the Leviathan.

I'm not 100% sure how to post a reply but I did click on the "View Game Replay" button of a recently completed game. The end of game summary states that both expansions are enabled and the faction selection was random. Here is the link (hopefully):

https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=873108174

The first move in the replay just states, "Player order has been rearranged". It says nothing of the how the factions were assigned. The expansions were enabled but somehow randomly none of the 4 players were assigned an expansion faction? I remember that someone in the game commented on it.

I'm currently in two games with both expansions enabled. In one the factions are random, in another (that I started) players choose factions. I didn't see any of the expansion factions when the game started, there are no expansion factions in that game - it's possible that no one else chose them. In the random game it's also possible that non of the expansion factions were selected but it's a little suspect that in 2 games all 8 factions were the older ones and I haven't seen a single new one.

Do I need to be a premium member of BGA or have been on the beta testing to see the new factions?

Houstralian wrote: ↑01 July 2026, 00:05 It says nothing of the how the factions were assigned.

Untrue. The options at the bottom clearly state that the game was configured with random faction assignments when it was created.

Houstralian wrote: ↑01 July 2026, 00:05 somehow randomly none of the 4 players were assigned an expansion faction?

True. Turned out there was a bug that was both reported and fixed, but that was after you started your game.

Houstralian wrote: ↑01 July 2026, 00:05 Do I need to be a premium member of BGA or have been on the beta testing to see the new factions?

Nope. You can choose factions when it's not random. When it is random, it's... random (now).

Hope that helps!

Ok, thanks for the replies. I just started up another game with the new factions enabled and players choosing the factions. When enough players have joined I'll be able to give feed back on what happened. With random turned off, I should (hopefully) have a 100% chance of choosing one of the new factions.

An update to my previous post. This time it worked! Ahoy is the reason I joined BGA in the first place. I'm super pumped for this!
Thanks!

No problem. You did the right thing by posting here first and sharing your experience. Too many people assume their misunderstanding is a bug and file bug reports without checking in the forums first.

Happy sailing!