Hyperlane wars

Navigate your ships around the galaxy to shoot the enemy ships and conquer all the stars. Place strategic chokepoints, circumvent enemy strongholds, make bold attacks to gain territory or turtle up and hope to outproduce your enemy.

This game is a spiritual precursor to Galimulator, predating it by many years, now it's been polished up a bit and I'm releasing it for free for you to play with :)

(and yes it's perfectly possible to just watch the AI beat each other up if you prefer)