[Baron Munchausen]

I've played both. Stars! is very rigid in the ship design area. You are given a very small number of slots and clear limits to what you can put in them. Only so many shields or armor can be put in a particular class of ship, for example. Also, there is no "tactical" combat mode in Stars! -- only strategic and you get a replay after your turn is executed. The racial variations are very interesting, though, and lead to real differences in strategy to an extent that makes the game a lot of fun in other ways. Stars! is more of a multi-player game, with simpler options in ship design and control while SE is more of a single player (detail oriented) game. Both can do PBEM, though. The biggest 'strategic' flaw in Stars! is that there is no maintenance cost, so you can build up fleets to ridiculous levels. But, Stars! does have one area where it's very detailed. You have to manage your resources directly! Yep, transports have to move minerals around and planets have to have enough minerals on hand to build something. Now, Stars! Supernova promises to be much closer to SE if they can do all the stuff they are claiming.