Age of Empires II: Rise of the Rajas Expansion Announced

It seems like a golden age of revival for old classics like Age of Empires II, with yet another new expansion announced, this time bringing us to South-East Asia.

New civilisations added include the Burmese, Vietnamese, Malay, and the much-requested Khmer. The expansion will also feature four fully-voiced campaigns.

Rise of the Rajas releases on 19 December.

Join the hive mind with Rathskellers' latest gaming table

We featured the beautiful and functional gaming tables of Rathskellers before, but they have a new offering worth checking out: the Hive.

This hexagonal-shaped beauty gives plenty of gaming space, some optional shelves and LED lighting, and even seals up nicely to work as a standard piece of furnishing (just in case you want to hide your gaming addiction).

Visit the Rathskellers site here

And before we go, we just wanted to ask: what kind of table or game storage do you use?

More chibi cuteness with Yōkai Quest on Kickstarter

One of our favourite games is Arcadia Quest by CMON, followed swiftly after by Super Dungeon Explore, so when we saw Yōkai Quest on Kickstarter, we just couldn't resist. It's already chock full of content with over 100 miniatures, and lots more up for grabs with great Stretch Goals.

Back it on Kickstarter

Look at some of the stuff you get!

You're in a good place with Mythic Battles: Pantheon

Our new favourite miniatures game on Kickstarter is Mythic Battles: Pantheon, a new skirmish game featuring the gods and heroes of Greek mythology.

We've watched and backed a lot of Kickstarters over the years, and this has to be one of the best-run, if not the best. Great communication with constant updates and novel use of the new live video stream feature (kudos to Leo for his hard work on this).

What sold us on the gameplay was the playthrough video by Beasts of War, which makes the game look like great fun indeed!

And, of course, scale is a big thing in this game, with gods towering over men, and the mighty titans even taller still. Maybe "miniatures" wasn't the right word...

Pledge your support on Kickstarter

(We just had to use Leo's infamous catchphrase!)

Celebrate Halloween in style with Deep Madness

Linking Minds. Illustrated by Stefan Kopiński.

New on the tabletop gaming block, Diemension Games (sinister name, eh?) seems to have taken a leaf out of CMON's book to orchestrate a highly successful Kickstarter campaign for its debut miniatures board game Deep Madness.

The game follows the premise of investigators locked inside an underwater facility where things have gone wrong. They'll have to tackle the monstrosities beneath, their own mounting madness, and even wrestle with water in drowned chambers. This one is just dripping with theme.

Back it now on Kickstarter

There's a ton of value in this game, as shown by the pledge graphic below:

(Updated with final graphic.)

Endless Space 2 nears Early Access

Endless Space 2, Amplitude Studio's next great 4X game, is nearly ready for Early Access. The sequal to its wonderful turn-based space strategy game seeks to merge the best of ES1 with some of the new and fresh features of Endless Legend, its fantasy Civ-style spin-off.

But Amplitude always does things with a unique twist. Consider, for example, the faction known as the Vodyani, best described as "space vampires."

Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Launch Video

Check out the launch trailer for Beamdog's new entry in the Baldur's Gate franchise, Siege of Dragonspear. Hopefully they do it justice and decide to do an expansion for BG2. Those high-level heroes are so much fun to play!

Putting the "Table" in Tabletop Gaming with Rathskellers

The problem with board games, especially miniatures-based ones, is the footprint involved. They just take up so much space, some more than others.

And, if you're like me, you'll have a ton of board games, and nowhere to store them. Storage is key.

Enter Rathskellers, with an array of super specially-designed tables just for gamers, with plenty of drawers, trays, card holders, LED lighting, and, of course, lots of tabletop space for endless dice-rolling action.

Just look at these pictures and tell me that doesn't make you drool (careful! not on the table!).

Images courtesy of www.rathskellers.com

Tabletop Tip-off: The Walking Dead: All Out War

The Walking Dead have walked—or maybe hobbled—onto Kickstarter, courtesy of Mantic Games, the guys behind a slew of cheaper (and equally good) alternatives to the Games Workshop range.

The new game, The Walking Dead: All Out War, comes with all your favourite characters, plenty of zombies, and some cool scenery. The Stretch Goals are just ramping up, so now's the time to pledge to help fend off those undead.

It's worth pointing out that the designs of this are based on the comics, not the TV show, just in case you're wondering why some of the characters look noticeably different.

Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon Out Now

The new expansion for Age of Mythology is now available on Steam, reviving an old and much-loved real-time strategy game.

Tale of the Dragon focuses on the Chinese, bringing several new gods and myth units to the table (or, rather, the PC screen).

We only hope that this is just the start, and Forgotten Empires adds several more expansions.

Get it on Steam

Gearing Up

Welcome to Game Gearbox, a new blog on board games and video games, helping you gear up for the table, PC, or console.

I'm particularly big on miniatures games, but we'll try anything, especially if it's heavy on theme.

For video games, I tend to stick to the good old-fashioned PC, but I'll branch out to console games if they strike our fancy.

So, sit back, crank those engines, and get ready for a hell of a ride.