I was thinking this same game. I quit playing starcraft/warcraft etc, because it is so important how quickly you can play and most of your focus is on the micro of your army, rather than how strategic you plan you base. While northgaurd is a very strategic city builder/resource management type with just enough fighting to keep everything interesting. Very small armys (12 is a very large army) so micro during battle is slower, less important at most for a few minutes. Putting the priority on how you have planned your base/resources. A much welcomed change in rts games.
I got this game because I thought it would be like that, but unfortunately there's still a lot of micromanagement available with units at war, something I specifically was trying to avoid. Your melee units will get kited around.
I would have preferred it to be either "enter tile and attack what's there" vs "retreat".
It's an RTS but with very calm/slow pacing and is very forgiving if you don't want to zone into it like other fast paced rts games.