One of the things I've found missing from the more slickly made, more modern Star Wars universe turn-based games is that there's no real mystery; you can tell where the fleets are coming from, you can set up defenses on whatever lines of approach along which a fleet will arrive. With this game, you can send your fleets anywhere, and it may take months of galaxy time to get there, which means that you might ALSO have an enemy fleet show up in orbit around ANY planet. You can send out spies, have intelligence that a planet's orbit is clear, only to show up and find out that the enemy's arrived ahead of you with a huge fleet. There's no communication with fleets in hyperspace, so there's plenty of time to try and strike team in place to take out that shield facility. It's also possible to have a planet in your sphere of influence which seems to be loyal, only to start seeing unrest. You send in an intelligence team, only to find out that an enemy fifth column has been set up on your planet, starting a rebellion against your governance, forcing you to take steps to quell it. It takes patience, which is something that most games don't take into account these days.
