[Suicide Junkie]

This might be interesting:

A long series of black hole systems (and/or super-damaging storm mazes) is on the path to the goal system.

Every third system or so, there is a tiny planet in a black hole system.
These planets are your safety nodes, and once you have them colonized, you can resupply there or build new ships in order to continue your journey.

Each race will have to fight to dominate a node long enough to build the facility (resupply or SY) and relay ships further down the chain.
Orbital defenses will not be possible due to the black hole pull, and even ships will have serious trouble staying in the right spot to help defend.