Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion is also a good strategy game, it is much more of an RTS though. It also has great mod support as well. It's for sale for 10 right now on Steam.
Besides RP I would also only have 1-1.5 hours before I have to go to bed. So I might not be able to make it at all or only be 10-20 years in when I have to get off.
I love just going nearly pure science as I tend to play extremely tall (Largest Empire I had less than 10 planets) and building a massive military and having the economy to support it is extremely hard. Though it might be easier playing machine intelligence since I don't have to worry about food. Needs more testing!