Reading about Runewars --and getting more excited about it as I do--makes me really long for an equivalent sci-fi game, with heros, quests, tactical battles, and so on, set in the TI universe. I've long hoped that Runequest might be adapted in some way for a TI universe: maybe a planetary exploration game or planetary invasion battles, but reading about Runewars just heightens the desire for a really good, deep, hero-level TI game with both planetary and interstellar adventures, battles and the like.
Christian and Corey, you make such fantastic games. Surely an adventure/tac battle game in the TI universe isn't beyond your combined talents!