What game will my father-in-law like?

[Fyron]

Space Empires IV Gold will most likely apeal to him then. It is the same genre of game as Master of Orion. It has simpler game mechanics than MOO2 does. Check out the demo.

[Strider]

You might consider The War Engine...there's quite a few differnt 'games' that come with it, including a WWII based one. It's very easy to learn, and the 'guts' are wide open for anyone to modify current themes, or to create their own.

I think Dominions II is going to be very popular, also. I had gotten burnt out on 'Age of Empire' type games, but Dom II has a lot of depth to it.