Can anyone help me find the right Space Strategy game there's just too many to choose from! I'm looking for something with in depth 'empire' building but good real time combat as well. I love the total war games for example.
X3 Reunion, Terran Conflict + Albion Prelude
Homeworld 2
Haegemonia: Legions of Iron
Master of Orion 2
Space Empires
Galactic Civilizations
Imperium Galactica These games in bold seem closest to the sort of thing I'm looking for but it's hard to tell what's best just by looking up videos etc and the ones below do seem good as well.

Star Wars: Empire at War
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Starpoint Gemini
Sword Of The Stars
Independence War/ I-War

Would highly appreciate some help! Have heard of other games like Sins of a Solar empire but I want in depth combat which I've heard it doesn't have.

Edit: Just found more games after a quick look on steam 0.0 my mind is blown by the number of these games:
Horizon
Stardrive
Armada 2526
Sword Of The Stars

Gotta go with SMAX.
Think Civ 2 in space....

Though MoO 2 comes a close second.

These are all the ones I've tried:

x series - very good economy system and sim combat - though it is a sim and not really a strategy game
homeworld - probably the best space rts ive played - but no real economy / diplomacy without the "complex" mod - even then its not quite civ in space
galactic civilisations - like civ in space from what i've played
Armada 2526 - much like Galactic Civilisations
Alpha Centauri - it is civ in space - well, on an alien planet
Sword of the Stars - the first one is great - the rts combat isnt amazing, but once you start getting the reasearch upgrades and designing new ships it can be pretty good and break the 4x grind

you may also wanna look at Sins of a Solar Empire and check through this old thread of mine to see if theres anything else that takes your fancy: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/looking_for_new_spacebased_game

Amazing as far as I'm concerned. The game has just about the best UI design I've seen in a 4X, but it also manages to give its races and universe quite a bit of background to give you context to fight in. It's just really, really good.

I was looking at endless space however you should know the combat takes place using 'cards' which is what put me off. However I've heard that the game is very good so if you're not bothered about controlling combat yourself then that doesn't matter. The X series looked good, I don't mind if it's more Sim so long as there is enough strategy there to keep it interesting. As for Galactic Civilisations, Armada and Alpha Centauri I must admit I've never played the Civ games so how would the combat be in those? I've heard much praise for the Civ turn based strategy however.

I really recommend Galactic Civ 2. With all addons. You might have heard what they say about this game, It is all true.

Would probably vote for the X series, and a new installment is just around the corner.

If you can get your hands on a copy of Imperium Galactica II, go for it. That's my all-time favourite space strategy game. The sheer amount of customization options is staggering without being overwhelming.

Like i said - it's not really a strategy game.
The combat in the civ type games is auto resolved.

Take a look at Star Ruler too, it's a pretty good game. From the ones you posted, Master of Orion 1+2 is deffinitely the best, closely followed by Alpha Centauri . Sword of the Stars(the first one) is good too, but I hate the interface...

The expansion is pretty much a must-have - it expands upon the original game's rules and enhances them, most notably adding fighters + bombers and making planet invasion a lot more involved process (and a new race, of course)

Ah yes - forgot about this!
(the tutorials are damn annoying though).

I rather liked the 'card' system - battles are still conducted in real-time so it's not RNG, every shot is actually calculated, every armor deflect important - it makes ship equipment essential (whereas RNG can often be fooled.) In addition, cards themselves gave player a chance to influence the combat in several ways, without actually giving him full control - that's great, because when somebody's a good strategist but not that great tactician, he would often find himself at an disadvantage in most 4X games. Not so in endless space.