Yeah, the lack of competition was noticable.
A carrier battles mod game might be good. Plenty of crew turnover, and border skirmishes can go back and forth with survivors on both sides.
As long as you don't get to the point where you describe
*this* as merely a "border skirmish"
A small map would help in that regard.
Considering that a story game would have fairly slow turns, I'd be happy to play an AI or two for you
