I tried getting back into Gnomoria, but I guess my tastes have changed... I don't enjoy it any more, at least not the early part of it.
See, one of the challenges of Gnomoria is that if you don't set a policy for something, it doesn't happen. And for a game where you can't give direct orders to people, there is a LOT of micromanagement.
For example, somewhere in the second season of your colony's founding, you can expect a minor goblin attack. Talking two, maybe three goblins, armed with wooden or stone weapons at most. You start with 9 gnomes. In theory, you should be able to overwhelm them just with sheer numbers, barefisted.
The problem is, your gnomes don't have any combat directives out of the box.
In order for gnomes to engage in combat, they have to be part of a squad. A "squad" is a theoretical military construct in the game that defines combat behavior and formation for the members of the squad, of which there can be up to 5. But to form a squad, you have to assign it a formation. A formation is a theoretical military construct that defines the roles, perks and equipment kit of each gnome in the formation (which again, there can be up to 5). But to define a formation, you have to have at least one equipment kit (or "Uniform") defined, so that you can assign it to each slot in the formation. So at some point you have to go through this bureaucratic exercise that takes 10-20 minutes just so your gnomes won't ignore threats and carry on with their work while they bleed to death from stumps that used to be their extremities.
Define Uniform (Whatever is available) -> Define formation (Civilian militia, consisting of 5 "whatever is available" uniforms utilizing unarmed and sight distance perks) -> Define two squads ("Civilians 1" and "Civilians 2", each consisting of a Civilian Militia formation, with orders to avoid combat if possible unless targets are specifically designated, and flag that members will immediately retreat to heal if wounded).
And if you forget to do all that, the first monitor lizard that wanders into your Dwarf Fortress Gnome Kingdom will bite somebody to death, and this early on in the game you absolutely cannot afford to lose anybody, because each gnome you start with is generally one of only two gnomes with any skill at all in doing what it is he's supposed to do (mine, farm, cook, tend animals, etc), and if one of your original 9 dies before you train up a replacement, you might as well start over.
And there's lots of other red tape like this. If you don't micromanage build and crafting tasks early on, to a ridiculous degree, the workshops you order to get built don't get built. And there's practically no feedback about what is holding things up... it just never gets done.
So yeah... I've been playing more Rimworld instead. The only thing that Gnomoria has over Rimworld is a Z axis - you can have upstairs and downstairs areas, ranging from 20+ stories up to all the way down into Balrog territory. And I was kinda missing that. That, and elaborate pit traps that would drop attacking armies 10+ stories down mineshafts so that my gnomes could pick spoils out of the splatterchunks in the basement and make goblin and ogre sandwiches out of the meat.
The either/or dynamic of the mistress selection in Overlord 1 always bummed me out.
