I'm not exactly sure what started this trend of taking old school RTS classics and improving upon them with modern expansions but its one that I can definitely get behind.

After working on two modern Age of Empires expansions the aptly named Forgotten Empires studio will be releasing a brand new expansion for Age of Mythology titled Tale of the Dragon this January 28th. Here's a short overview of what you can expect to see:

There is a brand new campaign coming along with the expansion. It is fully voice acted in English and will follow general Jiao-Long as he attempts to find a way to restore Yin and Yang and bring peace to the empire. While the premise of the story does sound like it was made up by someone who only recently learned of China's existence it should still be a good bit of fun if the previous Age of Empires expansions are any indication.

As you might expect there is also a new civilization being added to the game, the Chinese. Their focus will be on warfare technology, morale-boosting generals and the magical "Wololo" monk borrowed from Age of Empires who is capable of converting anyone and anything to his side, whether the one being converted is a living being or not.

Next up are the new major gods - the Three Sovereigns:

From left to right they are Fu Xi, the Heavenly Sovereign who speeds up construction in return for favor; Nu Wa, the Earthly Sovereign who will boost your villager productivity and economy; and Shennong, the Human Sovereign, who focused on agriculture and oddly enough siege warfare.

There are also 9 minor gods, all of which haven't been revealed yet but if you would like to check out those that have go here. Along with the new gods there are also new divine powers such as Tsunamis and Blazing Infernos as well as mythical units such as Dragons, Terracotta Warriors and so on.

And finally, a bunch of new randomized maps and tile-sets are being added as well as a giant map size option for all current and future maps! With modern PCs being able to withstand much more action than the ones from 10 years ago that will translate in to a whole lot of carnage on a single map.

That's all of the information revealed so far and with the release date set for January 28th I'm sure a trailer will be making its way over to youtube sometime soon. I do hope this expansion ends up working out as I have some fond memories of playing Age of Mythology as a kid and I would love to have an excuse to dust off the old CD once more.