[Suicide Junkie]

Instead, it sounds like it is some entirely new genre of game where you set policy that determines how the game AI controlling your own forces will allocate newly built ships to engage in exploration, colonization and war missions.

You know, that sounds a bit like the "Turn Blitz" game on PBW I started a while ago.

Turns every hour, so the (TDM) AI plays for the most part. You could slip in orders every now and then when you're not eating/sleeping/working/etc.