What's your micromanagement tolerance level?

[PvK]

I think it's a matter of personal taste and interest what each player considers to be "mircomanagement", and what is instead "gameplay"!

If you're willing to use ministers, SE4 can involve only certain kinds of management, or even none at all. It's too bad the ministers aren't a bit more sophisticated and controllable.

SE4 can get to be overwhelming when you have a really large empire, though, and there are definite advantages to managing details. It can take hours of management each turn to get a large empire to the point where there are no more orders which could clearly be useful. On the other hand, especially if you queue orders in advance, use repeat orders, etc, you can also often do OK just mostly coasting. So, it depends on how much of a perfectionist you are, too. Do you really need to have everyone occupied at all times?

PvK