I have seen some comparison of the old series to galcivII and these games are way too easily written off. So much is borrowed from them in gal civ (the land invasion scheme looks and acts exactly like moo I) that some comparison ought to be made. Particulary, very little military "strategy" is needed in galciv II ("strategos" being Greek for a general). There certainly is diplomatic strategy and economic management, but the key part of strategy is missing. So if we set aside graphics considerations (playing with ship design is a game unto itself):
Why couldn't galciv include a robust combat sequence like (or far better than) games that are far older? Except for graphics, preparing for war took much more prep in the old games. I will always remember my squadron of large battleships being atttacked by a fleet of tech inferior warships armed with "assault shuttles" to board my crafts, which I was totally unprepared for and forced to hastily retreat and re-design my fleet. Or speed and maneuverability could be used to throw the enemy fleet into disorder. "Phasors" and "Plasmas" were actually different types of guns. Etc,etc... The point is that galcivII has actually taken a rather large step backwards. And given that I think Rome:Total War is more the future of turn-based strategy's future popularity than anything else (one only need look at the vast upgrade in combat possibilities in civ4 from its predecessors to see this and I can only imagine the next civ game will expand this exponentially).
The same goes for land combat. Whole populations don't fight, armies do (with occasional partisan action of course). The rather rudimentary system of MOOII was still far more advanced than galcivII. And why can't I bomb a planet into oblivion if I don't want to invade? The tech exists now (i.e. hydrogen bombs), so why doesn't it exist then? And the need to deal with alien populations was something in MOOII that seems logical to include in every space game (I always exported the cave dwelling Sakkra all over the universe to live under every colony).
