Aw man you guys have such good theming and the BEST lore for sure! The existence of gruff and his lil meeple friends would be good enough, but you gave him a backstory and even the VB card as I saw! I was very happy to be able to see them develop and see how the board itself changed over the course of time!
I think you also elegantly made some interactions and mechanics work elegantly that I was having trouble wording or smoothing out. As some examples: using cards for actions, scoring based on warriors count, stacking buildings on existing ones. Really impressed with how all of that was ironed out in a way I couldn't make work for my lil guys.
Also love the additional mechanics actions put in such as leading through a forest, and thing that some bits of your faction would intertwine SUPER interestingly with the venues of my dudes! Great stuff!