The website for Mines of Moria - the first expansion for the rather spiffing Lord of the Rings Online - has been up for a while now, but the first free mini-game on the site has only just been unlocked. King Under the Mountain lets you make like an angry little person and "relive the excavation and building of Khazad-Dûm".

In practice, we couldn't see much excavating going on but King Under the Mountain proved to be one of those fiendishly addictive strategy games that kept us up far too late. Basically, you have a number of territories under your control, and a certain number of dice in each territory. Attack your neighbours by rolling dice and then advancing all but one of your dice into... stuff it, this'd be much easier if you just go and check it out yourself. Sure, it's all a promotional minefield designed to lure you in and ultimately suck gold out of your pocketses, but there are worse ways to be exploited, yes?