Did you ever play that holiday present game as a kid where you'd pass the parcel left or right based on a little story that was told by someone at the party? "Mrs. RIGHT LEFT her home and turned LEFT RIGHT away..." - the tutorial and dialogue definitely gave me that feel. I really liked that, though, it's a fun way to interact with the theme.
Hex based strategy though, gimme! I loved all the different interactions and mechanics, and honestly could see this developed as a larger game. I'd be DOWN to play that! The later levels did get a bit tricky, and on the first level it took me a bit to realize what I was meant to do - so maybe a bit of an arrow pointing to the element you need to drag UP, or a hand drawing attention to it may help. I kept trying to drag on the arrow soldiers themselves, but realized that was not what I was supposed to do.