Gnomishness

The red faction needs a larger army because when they appeared, I already had all the dwarf cities and, consequently, a decent army. Also, I don't know if it's a bug or not: after encountering the orange faction's miners, their conversations about shampoo and beer repeated every time I saved at the end of the turn until I took the last castle of the yellow faction, where miners were also present. Are they just there for decoration, or do they have some meaning? Also, in my opinion, there should be more combat artifacts.