QuoteI'm really against the idea of 'farming out' combat to an AI it just feels wrong to actively remove something that works from the game
I think this is the bigger issue at hand and will be more so once the kickstarter ends and more people are playing. If micromanaging combat is fun and meaty, compared to the rest of the game, then people will gravitate towards keeping it in and most likely expanding it. Already on the forums there are plenty of combat related suggestions that would add much more tactical depth.
Another problem with micromanaged combat is that you have undue ability to 'beat' the game. There is no way that enemy AI will ever compare to even an average player who has complete control over his colonists. So the major inflection points of the game will always occur in combat where the player can really extract maximum value from situations. The only way to counter this is to send many more raiders and then that puts you into the normal strategy game situation where you are clearly smarter than the computer and they stop feeling like an opponent and more like a cheating game system. Think how high-difficulty levels in Civilization amp the bonuses available to the other civs. Not smarter, just more.