Julius Caesar is a block-style board game covering the most epic conflict in Roman history: The civil war between Caesar and Pompey.

The ancient Roman era is a popular topic for gaming, although historical accuracy and detail can vary wildly. Imperium Romanum II is a seriously detailed game covering much of history of the Roman empire, while Julius Caesar is on the opposite end of the spectrum, both in the sense of being a lighter game and only focusing on the five years of the civil war.

Title: Smallworld UndergroundPrice: $50.00Release Date: July, 2011Publisher: Days of WonderAge: 8 and up (younger players will need some help, I think)Pros: Game plays differently every time, multiple boards, easily playable in under 2 hoursCons: Many similarities with Smallword, lots of special rules in play simultaneouslyOverall Score: Two thumbs up, 90/100, A-, **** out of 5

Smallworld Underground is a new game, but very similar to Days of Wonder’s hit game, Smallworld.

Days of Wonder announced on its blog that its hit Ticket to Ride game is getting a new expansion, Alvin & Dexter: A Ticket to Ride Monster Expansion. Alvin and Dexter are monsters, see, and players can move them around the map. Moving them around turns any location they occupy into a chaotic city, blocking the building of any routes into or out of the it, and cutting into victory points awarded at the end of the game. The models are cute, and put some wackiness on the board, as well as some new strategic options.

Know someone who thinks gaming only counts if it’s around the table, with friends? Now things get trickier if you’re actually trying to buy a surprise gift he’ll or she’ll like. Tabletop gamers are a bit finickier than your usual gamer and it’s all too easy to get something that might be a surprise but also not something the gamer particularly likes. To avoid such an act of despair, here’s a quick guide of sure-fire gifts to satisfy all but the most finicky of tabletop gamers:

Days of Wonder’s board game, Small World, is so powerfully addictive, it can lead a young widow to starve her dogs to death and ignore her small children, at least if a recent online news article is to be believed.

Once the story hit the internet, it spread quickly, despite the fact that, no, Small World wasn’t responsible, and isn’t even playable online (although there is an iPad version available). Instead, the widow played an online game called SmallWorlds, more of a social game than an MMO, unrelated to anything at Days of Wonder.

Konami, how could you? Things looked like they were going so well for you. You’ve got Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker coming out soon, not to mention Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Pop’n Music, SAW The Video Game and a new DDR game. But no, you had to turn to the dark side. You had to bring Twilight to the Wii and DS.

That’s right, Konami’s part of it. It’s teaming up with Screenlife for Scene It? Twilight. The game will be released not only as a standard DVD board game, but also on the Wii. There’ll also eventually be a DS incarnation, but that won’t be out until 2010. For now, let’s focus on the versions of the game that will be out before the The Twilight Saga: New Moon movie is released.

The Scene It? Twilight DVD board game will be out first, and Amazon’s saying it’ll be out October 1, 2009…