As kyro said in your other post, the campiagn isn't the main part of the game, and as such, isn't as well developed. Try playing some sandbox games, which are the main point of the game, and then see if your opinon as changed.

This type of game, as same with Civ series or most empire based games the focus is not on the campaign, but the endlessly random sandbox mode. Give it a few runs and you'll see it can be quite a different experience from game to game. You'll also be hard pressed to find a better non-cheating AI. Imperium Galactica was a great game, but not comparable really to GCII, they are just two different types of games.

As others have said above, try a few games in sandbox mode (where you click New Game on the first screen). You can play as any of the nine races or make up your own, all have different strengths and weaknesses. The choices of different galaxy sizes and of availability of stars and planets make for a wide variety of game environments. There are more planets to colonize and conquer and youf friends and enemies aren't predefined. Karumo said it best:

The sandbox mode is where all the features really shine.

It was once said that a good book is one that is differant everytime you read it

EXACTLY!
NO two games are alike!

In sandbox mode once you get to really feel the pressure of wars, leadership and making tough decisions and I don't mean just the ehical decisions you gotta make real decisions such as: taking altarians for allies when you know three evil races are gonna jump on your back.Save the arceans who give a huge trade bonus but if you do you'll have to fight the powerful drengin, declare war against the number 1 military power in the galaxy(say terrans)or lose three planets via culture flipping and hope you can establish an alliance with all the major races before your very own homeworld is culture flipped. settle for the class 11 planet(not that big of a challenge) or do you want the class 13 torian homeworld(very big of a challenge).

In fact, all that and more is just another day in the life of one of the Galactic Civilizations.

With the right tools and a good imagination, it's never the same experiance twice.

I strongly agree. This forum is also one of "the right tools" for the job. After you play a bit, you start to have questions about how stuff works, you read around here looking for info, and you end up seeing ideas you'd never come close to on your own that turn out to be just what you needed even though you didn't know it.