[scrumper]

Since we're doing alternatives for Civ-lovers, I really, really enjoyed Galactic Civilizations II. It had the right mix of massive scale, diverse strategy, politics, and an interesting combat mechanic with user-designed units. Endgame is sometimes a bit weak, when it's obvious you've won and have to grind through a multi-hour campaign of genocide, but it's the only game that's come close to that feeling of depth and complexity I got as a teenager from the Civ series.

[eru]

I tried to like Galactic Civilization II, but in the end, I came back to the first MoO. For example, I don't care enough about micro-management to build individual things on my planets. Give me the sliders. Also, MoO's research system is still without equal: each playthrough different technologies are available (for each faction, and thus for the whole galaxy) changing the character of the game.

Sirian wrote well about its charms at http://sirian.warpcore.org/moo1/

[scrumper]

I never played MoO so I had no basis for comparison. I should probably rectify that :)