Moo3 is a shareware now

[Hrothgar]

Atrocities covered space combat well. As for ground combat, first, there's no bombardment from space. Troop ships must land soldiers in order to take a planet [altho there may be, and I think there are, planet-destroying weapons at high tech levels. I haven't played in a while--busy getting ready to leave the country and mostly playing only SEIV when I have time], which they can't do unless your combat ships have eliminated any screen of defensive ships which may be present. So you order the troop ship[s] to attack, and a little screen comes up showing the relative strengths of the attacker and defender, with a variable which causes the result number to be cycling onscreen 'til you hit the attack button. It's as abstract as the space combat, and, other than bringing the numbers and researching stuff to make your troops better, there's nothing you can do to effect the outcome. But, as I noted, the focus of the game is on higher level decision making, so I guess tactical nuances would be superfluous. In the end, players always claim they want this or that detail, but, if they're all implemented, the game becomes lost under the weight of the minutia. No doubt, if you want tactical refinements, GalCiv will NOT be your cup of tea, but it does what it does very well, and it has a lot of flavor despite the tactical abstraction. I think I remember reading on the board there that a demo is planned--it may even be out now. If it's a decent demo, then downloading it and playing it would be the best way to decide if you want to shell out the bucks.