I enjoy the concept of building a board or this kind of "creature" (as in everything needs to connect and it has life) to accomplish the goal, but I think the goal is lack-lustre. I can't quite put words to it, but just trying to hit a specific block is almost too simple. Somewhat related somewhat not, I found myself just placing things down to reach my goal without much thought because I was nowhere near my heart to hurt it. 

My immediate thought for this was to change it to some kind of chess-like board and pieces and you would play against other player's configurations Super Auto Pets style.