Ok, love the space battles, but just coming from playing CIV-Beyond Earth I also love planet battles.
Similar to how you have "quick" battle and long battle, you could make it so planet battles are played out. Something akin to BERT, where you make landfall and the rest of the Planet is built out with enemy force, and you need to conqure them (game within a game). Or you could have it take several turns (weeks) where each turn is played out with each turn of GCIII.
This could make a game go on for years....
Just a random thought....
