how about this, which is a LOT easier, and probably more doable to:
you have an area with 10 slots on the left side, 10 on the right, and on each slot, you may pick 1 ship out of your own current designs (or all designs if gold) for each slot, then possibly a couple battle related skills at the bottom for each side, and hit start
the comp then goes to a 'battle' using the left side as the attacking force, using it's skills and bonuses, going against the right side...
a little work, and probably a little more work to use it, but I could see that being used even more
and would also be an even greater scouting tool, because if you have gold, all you need do is 'scout' the opposition for his ships, plug in those ships to the simulator, then just keep retrying till you know what you need to beat them
as a side note, I don't think this should include marines... but that's up to you guys, just I don't see the point with marines, unless more gets added to marines.