Yep, I'm well aware. I'm not trying to encompass the entire game by any stretch, but I am trying to be descriptive enough that people just seeing the bloody icon and then the name will click on it. Something that Bionic Dues has failed miserably at, but The Last Federation does enormously well at. Hence the importance of the name.
Ah, the not-at-all important, yet mightily important metagame of naming the damned thing.
I'd say at this point that just having a working title should be the goal, unless this is our forum metagame to keep us busy while you work furiously at a whiteboard.
Yes, I know I'm not being useful. I'll add my sort-of vote against using "Empire," since that really is kind of overused, and more or less owned by two or more other towering strat games.
Maybe if you can describe who we are going to be in playing this game, in terms of our character? Are we bitter stellar refugees of some sort, for instance? Ambitious, ruthless players at assembling a quick planetary alliance? Sad, ancient, fallen creatures? Craven, soulless, coal-hearted spider ninjas? I mean, I read the OP, but what's the tone of the game going to be?
My going idea at the moment is to frame it like one temporary, visionary leader flourished amongst our protagonists. He had a revolutionary idea, a guiding principle that they'll follow, or perhaps deviate violently and heretically from. The game is sort of named after his method.
"The _________ Plan."
Inherits very obviously from The Foundation series by Asimov, and the Seldon Plan. Can be a nonsense name, or the name of the planet or nearby star.
The benefit here is that "Plan," or any similar alternative, will still say "strategy game."