Stellaris

A lot going on constantly and a lot to keep track of. Definitely one of those games you could sink hundreds of hours into if you're digging it.

A lot of the game does happen in the end game, but unlike civ it's a fairly steady road. Economy, Fleet, and Diplomatic managament. All could be done better, but no other game does them all as well. The game start is mostly resource management & exploring, and for me the logistics of the random area I'm in. The early game is the knife edge balance of defense & conquest, resource aquisition, science, and diplomacy. The mid-game is about empire building, tall or wide. The AI is pretty bad at specing ships, but it's going to be better than you for the first 100h - or at least until you learn that ships need to have one weapon range. Diplomacy isn't bad, the Vassal system saves a lot, but the influence penalty for pursuing it over military might be a little harsh. Federations aren't bad, but the AI is kinda dumb about it. Science does win battles but you need to manage the logistics of upgrading your ships and the warfront, particularlly in your galaxy spanning forever war. The lack of an in-game tech-tree is reasonable for your first few games, but kinda dumb after that. Planet building can be interesting, but the technologcial increases in build slots to the excess of your current city block expansion and max build slots is annoying (I usually use a blocked slot to be sure I'm not wasting them). The biggest downside is that until you have a good sense of the game year power balance, you can get to the year 3600 and only then realize you really messed up 500 years ago. Choose your expansions wisely, they are not all created equal. Until recently, machine intelligence was super easy mode, now its advantages (easy resource management) are better balanced against traditional sapience with trade. Overall, if you have the time, it's a good game. Don't underestimate the fun you can have with a Role-play empire (self-handicap for theme of play).

^^

Cons: Late game lag forces you to pick smaller galaxy size with fewer planets/civilizations. DLC bloat can be pricey if you want access to all features. Pro: Love the ability to customize your galaxy. Wish you could actually design your own maps star-by-star though. LOVE all the options to customize your civilization and really role play. The tech tree is hard to learn at first, but there are a ton of online guides. Each game is like reading a good choose-your-own-adventure sci-fi novel. I have fun playing on easier difficulty with role playing just as much as min-maxing.

Launcher constantly messes up, makes me wish I had bought the Steam version