Summary
As challenging as the genre can get, strategy games can be cathartic too. Seeing a plan come together as more territory is obtained, resources are gained, and the enemies are left scattered across the battlefield can be very satisfying. But for some, the joy of conquest is rather fleeting. Pooling resources into having the best, most reliable arms? It’s a rather predictable strategy.
What if they wanted to out-think their opponents in other ways? Outsmarting them without needing to send in troops, convincing them to work together for a common cause, or simply focusing on their own survival and progression. If players want to test their wits by taking these or other pacifist approaches, they can give these strategy games a go.
The classic historical strategy seriesCivilizationhas always let players achieve non-violent victories. ByCivilization 6, players could win by having the most widespread religion, the best scientific technology (i.e.landing a man on the moon or launching a satellite), producing the most inspiring culture through their art and wonders, or the most diplomatic points, alongside dominating the land through sheer force. However, it’s not usually very easy to do all this without having a strong military.
There will always be a more aggressive civilization at the player’s doorstep, and appeasing them could get them into more trouble down the line. That’s without getting into the tricky nature of balancing enough policies to help foster enough wonders and geniuses before their rivals for that victory. Pacifists will still need to invest in their military, as no one will listen to them unless they carry this proverbial big stick.
By contrast,Anno 1800and its predecessors focused more on building cities, raising economies, and establishingbusinesses 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 get ahead in the series without firing a single shot. Through careful diplomacy, trading, and investing, players can expand their influence.
For example, instead of taking over an island, they could become its majority shareholder, taking it for themselves gradually by being the driving force of its economy. Then, if it aggravates any rivals, players can come up with a way to ease their tempers with some deal sweetening. It’s both a sneaky kind of capitalism and a peaceful approach to becoming an economic powerhouse.
Stellaristakes the action to space, where the player’s civilization can use their faster-than-light (FTL) tech to find habitable planets to colonize and expand their influence. All while being sure not to anger their rivals through mutually beneficial deals and careful agreements. Or through out-and-out aggression and conquest. Players can shape their civilizations in all sorts of ways: spiritual or materialistic, authoritarian or egalitarian, xenophobic or xenophilic, and militaristic or pacifistic.
They can be mildly one or the other, or fanatical about them, with each path offering different pros and cons. Pacifist civilizations offer more stability, but they can’t engage in any aggressive approach. Their military might can only be used for defensive purposes. No indiscriminate orbital bombardment, and no aggressive first contact protocols, which can lead to interesting results when paired with the other parameters. Players could be the ultimate space hippies, or something more sinister.
Once upon a time, the universe was run by an advanced race called the Endless. Their scientific knowledge was so vast they managed to achieve immortality by uploading their minds to machines. But this caused a schism between those who embraced this new technology and those who didn’t. It sparked a war that decimated both sides by the end, leaving a few Endless survivors to appreciate the irony of their fate.
Tens of thousands of years later inEndless Space 2, it’s up to the player to pick one of twelve factions and establish their galactic empire. They can learn from the Endless’ mistakes by making peace with their rivals and avoiding confrontations. There are even achievements in the game for winning a session without engaging in fights or winning a battle. As tricky as it sounds, it can be done with the help of the Umbral Choir’s cloaking technology, enough resources for making deals, and knowing where and where not to tread.
5Fate Of The World
Save The Environment Through Policy And Diplomacy
Things can still go wrong inStellaris,Anno, andEndless Space 2,and lead to a situation where a pacifist has to take up arms to defend themselves. So, what if there was a strategy game that didn’t involve combat at all?Fate of the Worldfocuses on how to make the planet more sustainable by putting the player in charge of a fictional international organization based inthe modern era.
Through them, they can shape social, technological, and economic policies to avert climate change (based on real data from the University of Oxford), improve impoverished areas, and more. But it’s not as easy as it seems, as they have to keep their public opinion polls high in all twelve regions. If players aren’t careful, those polls can drop low enough to get them banned from an area for the rest of the game. People aren’t going to give up gasoline-powered cars or fund social programs without the player thinking ahead.
The god game genre has kind of been quiet since the days ofBlack & White 2. Thedebacle ofGodusprobably didn’t help either. Luckily,Reusgives fans of those old games something to sink their teeth into. This time, they guide four elemental giants around a 2D world where they can grant resources to humble humans. It’s not likeCivilizationorFate of the World, so where’s the strategy?
That lies in how they arrange the giants and their bounties. They can’t directly control the humans, and they can act in all sorts of different ways. Without enough minerals, plants, and animals, they’ll die out. Give them too many resources, and they can grow greedy and wage war over them. It offers an intriguing challenge for a pacifist, as they have to find the right balance between helping everyone thrive equally without causing them to fight.
Banishedoffers another outside-the-box option as it offers the city building and resource management ofCivilizationwithout the rival civilizations. It’s all about building homes from scratch in an isolated community and making sure they survive. To do that, they have to manage the economy, assign jobs to citizens to help them provide people with what they need, and grow the town in both territory and population as the generations pass.
It’s an intriguing idea, and oneBanishedmostly gets right. However, once players got to grips with it, they found it became less of a survival game and more likeSim City, complete with hazardslike natural disastersand economic depression. Nonetheless, likeReus, it gives pacifist players a completely non-violent alternative to the likes ofCivilization, where keeping their people happy and their hometown thriving is the name of the game, not waging war and raising soldiers.
