I'm a little new to the GalCiv2 scene, but it does seem like the pacing is completely frenetic! Within a few turns there is a complete blizzard of enemy ship colonizing everything in sight!

(Forgive me if its taboo to invoke an oldie but goodie in this genre, but one of the great things about MOO was its pacing, particularly in the beginning. You kind of put out some feelers and got to a couple of worlds and built slowly. Only at the end were the fleets flying around at amazing pace.)

Perhaps this is just a style thing, and thats how you want GalCiv2 to play. However, i for one like the slow pacing in a strategy game. Thats what sets these kinds of games apart from the crazy clicking and scrolling of reat time strat games.