Battles TOO are automated. Yes, you heard me. Besides choosing a formation and a range for your fleet, that's it. This, coupled with the fact that you have NO way of seeing enemy fleets before they nuke your colonies, kinda degenerates into a race, a guessing game. Go on, predict where the unknown fleet of the unknown enemy will strike next, and try to get your fleet there so you can watch unipsiring uneventfull battles.
Lets be short.
These are the pest part of the game, and they ani't up to date. I was gonna say Space Invaders looked better, but I shouldn't exagerate. It'doesn't look worse than that, but that's about all there is to it. The galaxy map, puh-leeze. Little dots representing stars.