This case has been made many times before and it will likely be made many times in the future. This game screams for tactical combat even when other games don't. The reason, the ship designer. Civilization shouldn't have tactical combat because unit design isn't part of the game, but where you've gone to all the trouble to allow people to totally customize their units, you owe it to yourself to pair it with a tactical combat experience. The great variety that they're missing out on by not having it is immense. Tactical combat allows you to bring out all those aspects of ship design that you're currently missing.
Having both features really is better than having only one. Let's examine what aspects of ship design you're missing out on because you don't have tactical combat.
Fixed verus pivoting weaponry
Damage to critical systems (e.g. propulsion, weapons)
Massive weapons with high penetration, low rates of fire, large size, and expensesive
Small weapons with low penetration, high rates of fire, small size. and cheap
Varying effects of beam, missile and mass driver weaponry
Effects of different propulsion systems
and on and on and on.
People keep asking, why have tactical combat; Civ IV doesn't. Well Civ IV doesn't have a unit designer. I think people see the potential of the two features together and they want what they see. I do.
