I used to play this old game called Imperium Galactica 2: Alliances. Anyone remember it? Anyhoo, the game had this great way of doing 3D battles, so that when ships battled it zoomed into a grid that showed all of the ships in the fleet and then it kinda went like the likes of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, so you could click and drag your ships and then select a target, or select tactics and formations and let the PC blast it out for you. Ground battles worked the same way, except with tanks. It all looked very impressive and was very user friendly.
This game must be at least 5 years old now, so surely with modern technology it could be easily knocked up? I've never played any of the MoO games, so I don't know how they look. Are they worth checking out?