The Culture: This Is Top-Level Gaming In Action

See this segment from Legend of the Galactic Heroes?

That's what top-tier faction play looks like.

"But I'm playing Real D&D!"

Take your ships, make them move in three dimensions (though at this scale it might as well be 2D), make them (much, much) bigger, move them in terms of fleets instead of mans and you have a playable fleet battle under Real D&D.

"But my guy-"

Is still the man that matters. His Charisma score matters. Those of his henchmen--who do you think those chief subordinate commanders are--matters. Morale relies, first and foremost, on him- and if you've seen the Battle of Vermillion you know why that's a threat as well as a danger (and it is implied here).

This is what your campaigns need to be moving towards: big, massive moves from big, massive men doing big, massive things for big, massive reasons. In this context, it's attempting to unite the galaxy under one imperial state by military force. In another it could be soft power flexing to achieve conquest by cultural domination. It could be by assassinating and replacing the enemy big guy (that happens in Legend of the Galactic Heroes more than once), or stealing something so grand everyone bows down in submission.

This is what real gaming is about: the pursuit of a man's Objectives until he wins, he's taken out, or everyone loses.

Delving dungeons is just one part of the larger game; it's the origin of today's Extraction Shooter style of videogame (Hunt Showdown, Escape From Tarkov, Dark & Darker, etc.) It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the whole game; what you saw would be a PVP match at the table, with a damn good showing on one side making the other's win far more painful than it should have been (and that has consequences down the line).

You can do this sort of thing. You want a fantasy version? Record of Lodoss War, Record of Grancrest War, Heroic Legend of Arslan, Berserk and that's just the weeb side of things; you'll find even more in other fictional media, in history, or in mythology.

This is #EliteLevel gaming, and you ought to be aiming for this with every man you roll up in every game you play. Ambition is an underappreciated element in this hobby, and I want to see a hell of a lot more of it.