Direction 3 - The Goblin King Desires Shiny

This concept is very different from how the game works currently.

Concept:

You play as a goblin middle manager.  Send out raiding parties. Destroy human villages. Get the shiny stuffs and grow in power until you can take the capital for your king.

Goal:

In universe: The goblin king desires riches, and eventually wants the big jewels.

Mechanically: Every week the goblin king picks one or more targets to send your army to, you must get your goblins battle ready before the week is up

Gameplay:

There are limited resources available each day, but you can take as much time as you'd like

Build burrows, merge burrows to create stronger burrows 

Research upgrades, mutate and equip your goblins in a variety of ways.

Chain burrows and other buildings to add equipment and training to your goblins.

Scope:

10 weeks, 5-10 enemy unit types, 3-8 building types types, 100 mergeable-upgrades, 30 enemy upgrades

Mechanics:

Use goblin effort points (upgradable) and trinkets (scaled based on adventurers killed) to build burrows and buildings

Research new modifiers

Merge burrows to create new upgrades from their random mutations

Attach training and equipment buildings to your burrows to further modify the goblins coming from them

Scout upcoming towns to see what you need to be prepared for

- more battle power leads to better scouting, but the goblins you send will be tired for the main battle and may even die

World:

The Goblin King demands obedience out of his middle managers. It may not be a glorious job, but it's better than being a broodling.

Characters:

Baan: The demon of greed worshiped by the goblins in days of old. Baan's shrines are where goblins go to pray for shinies, mainly.

Fug: Your main advisor, always willing to praise you for extra trinkets.

King: King of the goblins. Likes all things shiny, way more than he likes you.