The best strategy games to play as a pacifist

Key takeaways

• Civilization 6 offers pacifist conquests with a focus on culture, religion, and diplomacy.
• Anno 1800 allows players to expand peacefully through diplomacy and economic influence.
• Stellaris offers a space strategy game with a variety of playstyles, including a pacifist approach.

As challenging as the genre can be, strategy games can also be cathartic. It can be very satisfying when a plan comes together as more territory is gained, resources are gained, and enemies are scattered across the battlefield. But for some, the joy of victory is fleeting. Gathering resources to have the best, most reliable weapons? This is a rather predictable strategy.

What if they want to out-think their opponents in other ways? Outsmarting them without needing to send in troops, convince them to work together for a common goal, or simply focus on their own survival and progress. If players want to test their wits with these or other pacifist approaches, they can give these strategy games a try.

1 Civilization 6

Rule the land through peaceful means

Classic historical strategy series civilization Let the players always achieve non-violent victory. by Civilization 6Players can win by having the most widespread religion, the best scientific technology (such as landing a man on the moon or launching a satellite), producing the most inspiring culture through their arts and miracles, or dominating the most diplomatic points, the land. Through sheer force. However, doing all this without a strong army is usually not very easy.

There will always be an aggressive civilization at the player's door, and appeasing them can get them into more trouble down the line. That's without getting into the difficult nature of balancing enough policies to help nurture enough miracles and talents ahead of their rivals for victory. Pacifists still need to invest in their military, because no one listens to them until they carry that proverbial big stick.

2 Year 1800

Benefit from peace

On the contrary, Year 1800 And its predecessors focused more on building cities, growing economies, and establishing trade and trade routes. It is possible to go to war and fight on land and sea to establish new colonies. But, with clever play, people can advance in the series without firing a shot. Through careful diplomacy, trade, and investment, players can expand their influence.

For example, instead of seizing an island, they could become its majority shareholder, slowly taking it over as the driving force of its economy. So, if it escalates any rivalry, players can come up with a way to ease their anger by sweetening the deal a bit. It's both a terrible form of capitalism and a peaceful approach to becoming an economic powerhouse.

3 Stellaris

Spread peace in space by any means necessary

Stellaris The action moves into space, where the player's civilization can use their faster-than-light (FTL) technology to find habitable planets to colonize and expand their influence. While making sure not to anger your rivals through mutually beneficial deals and careful agreements. Or through out and out aggression and conquest. Players can shape their civilization in all sorts of ways: spiritual or materialistic, authoritarian or egalitarian, xenophobic or xenophilic, and militaristic or pacifist.

They can be mildly biased toward one or the other, or fanatical about them, each path offering different pros and cons. Pacifist civilizations offer more stability, but they cannot engage in any aggressive approach. Their military power can only be used for defensive purposes. No indiscriminate orbital bombardment, and no aggressive first contact protocols, which when combined with other parameters can lead to interesting results. Players can be the ultimate space hippies, or something more sinister.

4 Endless space 2

The universe is big enough to accommodate everyone

Once upon a time, the universe was run by an advanced race called the Endless. Their scientific knowledge was so vast that they managed to achieve immortality by uploading their minds into machines. But this created a divide between those who embraced this new technology and those who did not. This started a war that ultimately defeated both sides, leaving some endless survivors to appreciate the irony of their fate.

Tens of thousands of years later Endless space 2It is up to the player to choose one of the twelve factions and establish his galactic empire. They can learn from endless mistakes by making peace with their rivals and avoiding confrontations. There are also achievements in the game for winning a session without engaging in a fight or winning a fight. As difficult as it sounds, it can be done with the cloaking technology of the Umbral Choir, enough resources to make deals, and knowing where and where not to step.

5 The fate of the world

Save the environment through policy and diplomacy

• Developer: RED REDEMPTION LIMITED
• Platforms: PC, macOS
• Release: February 2011 (PC), September 2011 (Mac)

Things can still go wrong Stellaris, Annoand Endless space 2, And it leads to a situation where a pacifist has to take up arms to defend himself. So, what if there was a strategy game that didn't involve combat? The fate of the world The focus is on how to make the planet more sustainable by putting the player in charge of a fictional international organization based in the modern era.

Through them, they can shape social, technological and economic policies to prevent climate change (based on real data from the University of Oxford), improve poor areas and more. But it is not as easy as it seems, as they have to keep their opinion polls high in all twelve regions. If players aren't careful, those poles can be low enough to ban them from the field for the rest of the game. People are going to give up gasoline-powered cars or fund social events without thinking ahead to the athlete.

6 Reus

Use giants to build society or tear it apart yourself

God has been quiet since the days of the game genre Black and white 2. defeat of Godus Probably didn't help either. luckily, Reus Gives fans of those old games something to sink their teeth into. This time, they guide the four original giants around a 2D world where they can provide resources to the humble people. It's not like this civilization or The fate of the worldSo where is the strategy?

That's how they manage giants and their boons. They cannot control people directly, and they can act in different ways. Without enough minerals, plants and animals, they will die. Give them too many resources, and they may become greedy and wage war on them. This presents an interesting challenge for pacifists, as they must find the right balance between helping everyone thrive equally without fighting.

7 Expelled

Help a group of people take up arms and survive

Expelled Out of the Box offers another option as it provides city building and resource management civilization Without rival civilizations. It's all about building homes from scratch in an isolated community and making sure they survive. To do so, they must manage the economy, assign jobs to citizens to help people provide what they need, and grow the city in both area and population over generations.

It's an interesting idea, and a Expelled Mostly correct. However, once players got the hang of it, they found it less like a survival game and more likeable Sim CityComplete with threats such as natural disasters and economic downturns. However, as ReusThis gives pacifist players a completely non-violent alternative to the likes civilizationWhere keeping your people happy and your hometown thriving is the name of the game, not war and raising soldiers.