I find myself when playing GalCiv doing many things and making many choices that really don't have a marked effect on the game, but for me make it much more fun.

For example, destroying my planets that are about to be conquered purely to spite the AI, making ridiculous demands that I know the AI won't accept so that I could have some basis for then declaring war, targeting home planets and then renaming them (even if it isn't the best military choice to seize it in the first place), or prolonging a war just so that I can wie out each and every star base.

I realize that this isn't necessarily the best way to play the game. It wastes resources that could be used somewhere else, and sometimes ends up hurting me more then them. However, to me it plays an important role in playing a game. By doing so it makes it less a game about number crunching and turn ending, and gives the events a story and back drop.

I figure that I'm not the only one who does such things, so I am curious what you all do to make the game more interesting. Do you have any personal tactics or goals that really don't do anything beyond making it a better experience?