The Wonderful World of Goblins

Welcome to The capitalist world of Goblin
Goblins believe in many things.
They believe in progress. They believe in order. They believe in grand ideals.
Most of all, they believe in money.
The capitalist world of Goblin is a turn-based strategy game built around resource management, leader progression, exploration and territorial competition. Lead an ambitious goblin faction across a hex-based map, develop your territory, organize your forces and compete with other rulers for wealth, influence and room to grow.
Every opportunity has a cost.
The important question is: who ends up paying it?

Every turn is an investment
Move your leader and units across the map, explore new territory, secure important positions and send workers to develop the land you control.
Expansion creates opportunity—and expenses.
On the same turn, you may have to decide whether to invest in production or raise a larger army, construct a new facility or equip the forces you already have, keep accumulating resources or strike while a rival is vulnerable.
Leaders and units can grow stronger through progression and equipment. Your economy, territory and army are not separate systems. They are all competing for the same limited resources.
Five resources. One very questionable balance sheet.
Your faction is supported by gold, food, staff, reputation and happiness.
Money solves many problems, but never all of them.
Production and expansion require investment. Units and facilities require support. Policies, equipment, map mechanics and unexpected events can all force you to reconsider where your resources should go.
You cannot maximize everything at once.
Profit, military strength, public reputation or happiness: which one can you afford to sacrifice?

Different leaders. Different ambitions.
Goblin society has no shortage of people who believe they should be in charge.
The explosive sisters have a very direct approach to problem solving. The Politician specializes in power and manipulation. The Chemist calls dangerous experiments progress. Bankers, vampires, devils, machete-wielding outlaws and the undying all have their own ideas about how society should work.
Different leaders bring different abilities and strategic directions. Choosing a leader is not simply choosing a portrait. It changes how you approach development, expansion and your rivals.

Some problems can be outsourced
Money can buy buildings, equipment and influence.
Sometimes it can also buy people willing to solve inconvenient problems for you.
Use criminal contacts, hired muscle and other less respectable methods to interfere with your enemies and reshape the situation without always relying on open warfare.
Sometimes the cheapest war is the one somebody else fights for you.

Monsters are resources that fight back
Goblin factions are not the only things occupying the map.
Dangerous creatures and special targets can block expansion—but they may also protect rewards worth taking a risk for.
Develop your forces, improve their equipment and choose the right moment to attack.
If your troops return alive, danger can usually be reclassified as: profit.
There is more than one way to win
War is one solution. It is not the only one.
Depending on the map and the situation, you can build your advantage through reputation and influence, control of valuable locations and rare resources, economic strength and sustained expansion, or direct military domination.
A powerful army needs an economy behind it. A rich economy needs territory and security.
The real decision is knowing when to keep investing—and when to turn everything you have accumulated into action.

Gambling, tarot and unexpected opportunities
The goblin world does not stop creating problems simply because you made a plan.
Gambling can make you rich quickly—or remove the inconvenience of having money at all. Tarot can redirect a developing situation. Unexpected events can present decisions with consequences that are not always obvious.
Take the risk or walk away.
This world is extremely good at convincing you that the next time will be different.
A steampunk strategy world with a dark sense of humor
Exaggerated leaders, steam-powered machinery, propaganda, gambling, ambition and suspiciously reasonable explanations for terrible decisions make up this goblin society.
This is not a story about becoming a good person.
It is a strategy game about keeping your faction alive, making your numbers grow, using the strengths of your leader—and deciding who you become when everybody is trying to profit from everybody else.