Turns out that fantasy Factorio is a pretty good idea, and if you doubt me try the MoteMancer demo

Who wants to set up a flow of magical stuff to create more magical stuff? Who, I ask, wants some magical automation? Me, it turns out, and probably you, and probably lots of other people who like automation games.

MoteMancer, the debut game from indie studio CyanAvatar, has you as an alchemical apprentice in charge of automating a magical factory across six elemental planes and a magical tech tree worthy of the name.

And look, it's based on a hex-grid. I'm not going to pretend that doesn't factor into the appeal.