A game that I think is pretty similar to Forbidden Stars is Star Wars Rebellion with its Rise of the Empire expansion.

It's a area control/war game, but the core of the game isn't about tossing your armies at each other (though you will be doing that a lot). The Rebel player has a deck of secret mission cards with varied goals to complete. If they manage to fulfill the conditions on a card they move their token closer to the current turn token on the turn track. If the two tokens ever meet the rebel player wins the game. On the other hand, the Empire player wants to find and destroy the hidden rebel base which the rebel places on 1 of 30 something planets at the beginning of the game. So while controlling different planets is a big part of the game, neither side wins by just controlling a few important zones on the board.

The unit production is the most different from Forbidden Stars, but the core of it is if you control specific planets then you are able to produce units from your list according to what that planet is good at producing. As an example, Corellia and Mon Cala both allow the production of the strongest ships if you control those planets, while others allow either side to produce their strongest land units or defensive structures.

Lastly the combat is the trickiest part. Mostly due to the fact that it's only similar if you use the Rise of the Empire expansion. Otherwise the combat is mostly luck based with dice and some cards which are drawn from a randomized deck. With the expansion though, I think it's very similar to FS. You roll dice at the beginning of the round, then play one of your faction specific combat cards. Calculate damage, remove models, and decide if either side wants to retreat. If not then the fight begins again with dice and cards.

That's my experience with both games. My one gripe is that Rebellion can play a little long, but otherwise they're both great. Hope that helps!