When fans think of strategy games, they will likely imagine themselves as generals or rulers leading nations to war and victory. In more in-depth grand strategy and 4X titles, part of the ruling involves forming diplomatic ties and even navigating levels of intrigue to reinforce their influence over others. While these games often end once players manage to subjugate or control the entire world, players of strategy games may want extra depth in their playthroughs. In this regard, players may want to spice up their gameplay by not just playing as a nation, but as a rebel faction.

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Thankfully, certain games have mechanics that provide players with the opportunity to be subjugated by a liege nation or faction while they build their power base. Some of these games even begin with factions that are outright classified as rebellions, giving players a sense of depth and purpose in their playthroughs. However, just which games provide successful experiences of rebellion?

1 Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord

An Unconventional ARPG Approach To Strategic Rebellions

Unlike other strategy games where players begin as a ruler of a small territory and dominate other areas, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord forces players to quite literally work their way up. Beginning as an eponymous bannerlord recruiting units for their warband as they explore an open world. While they can converse with other characters and build relationships, players can also expand their territories through strategic combat they can partake in through the game’s blend of real-time strategy and action RPG gameplay.

It’s this emphasis on real-time combat that makes Bannerlord’s Vassal system more enticing. Before players can field entire armies, they need to either take rebelling towns as their own or go for a more practical route and start enforcing policies as Vassals of an existing empire. As players build their rank and acquire fiefs, they can peacefully break away from the kingdom or go all-out in total war, the latter of which allows players to engage in visceral combat against their former ruler.

2 Rome: Total War

Make Rebels Playable In A Challenging Campaign

As with other Total War titles, the Rebels existing in Rome: Total War doesn’t mean they’re automatically playable. However, Rome: Total War gameplay offers one of the more consistent ways of modding the Rebels into being a playable faction without breaking the experience. Doing this requires players to modify the “descr_strat” file under the Imperial Campaign folder within the Rome: Total War directory. Players need to cut and paste the Rebels into the playable section and ensure at the most 20 factions are in both segments before saving the file.

This gives access to a playable Rebel faction that originally starts in the northern-west part of the map in the town of Tara and begins with a hefty debt. Rebels also begin with scattered territorities and with all other factions considering them as enemies. Transitioning the capital to Athens should mitigate some economic costs, and players should adapt to the RNG of troops that suddenly spawn out of random or from “turned” units in cities during their turn.

3 XCOM 2

Anti-Alien Force Becomes A Resistance Group

Whereas most of the XCOM games let players become the last line of defense against an alien invasion, 2016’s XCOM 2 explores what happens when humanity has utterly lost the initial wave. With the global ADVENT Administration practically a puppet government of the aliens, the player’s Commander is rescued by XCOM who has amassed their remaining resources to stage a secret revolution. As such, while XCOM 2 retains the same turn-based strategy formula as its previous installment, players will be naturally outgunned and outnumbered most of the time.

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The rebel mechanics in XCOM 2 have more to do with using guerilla tactics and shock-and-awe attacks to obliterate the enemy faction before they have the opportunity to strike back. The game’s line-of-sight, cover system, and even hacking mechanics emphasize taking down foes in unique ways. XCOM 2 also features permadeath with a promotion system within its five classes, as well as options to carry dead soldiers back to base to extract their equipment.

4 Star Wars: Empire At War - Forces Of Corruption

The Quintessential Space Rebel Story

Among Star Wars games that often depict events in the canon, Star Wars: Empire at War - Forces of Corruption takes the story of the Original Trilogy out for an interesting spin. Whereas the original Empire at War story simply retells the Star Wars film from the perspective of interstellar conquest, Forces of Corruption introduces the Zann Consortium led by the crime lord Tyber Zann.

While playing the Galactic Empire emphasizes straightforwardly brutal offense, the other two factions in Forces of Corruption introduce new mechanics tailored to their nature as underdogs. The Zann Consortium’s Corruption feature can secure daily income for the faction or even debuff enemies by disabling a planet’s functions. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance can send C-3PO and R2-D2 on secret missions to steal technology from enemy planets.

5 Sins Of A Solar Empire: Rebellion

Go Beyond Diplomacy With Loyalist, Rebel Factions

With no campaign for its premise of a three-way war, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion instead acts as a standalone expansion for the original game that improves upon its core faction mechanics. Instead of humanity’s Trader Emergency Coalition fighting as a single unit against the alien Vasari and the vengeful psychic Advent, players also have a choice of either selecting Loyalist or Rebel sub-factions.

Depending on the faction choice, players get new research trees that unlock new capital ships and even Titan-class superweapon ships. Corvettes are added to the main fleet, paving the way for skirmishes and guerilla tactics. Its three DLCs also add more unique mechanics such as planetary classifications with bonuses (Forbidden Worlds), battlefield-altering space events (Stellar Phenomena), and the rise of smuggling planets, recruitable militias, and raiding (Outlaw Sectors).

6 Humankind

Ride The Tide With Vassalage

Despite its era-spanning gameplay being similar to the Civilization series, gameplay in Humankind offers flexibility by choosing Civilization Types in each era as templates of their own civilization. By the end of the final area, players can have one out of millions of civilization patterns in the game’s randomly generated map. However, being a 4X title, a player’s progress in their civilization may urge them to accept Vassalage within their Humankind playthrough.

As with other vassal-like mechanics, Vassals in Humankind provide tribute to the Liege while the latter controls most of the Diplomatic decisions the players take. More important here is how Strategic Resources and Luxury Resources are shared, allowing players to piggyback on a more powerful empire’s progress to catapult their own. When played correctly, players may Demand their freedom and wage war with a denying Liege, potentially taking their entire civilization just after players have benefited from its resources.

7 Stellaris

Cheese Subjugation From AI Overlords

The recent Overlords DLC of Stellaris introduced subjugation mechanics to the galaxy-spanning 4X title, allowing players to become Overlords of Subject empires to further prove their dominance over others. Thanks to Term Negotiations, players may even regularly modify the exchange of tribute, contributions, and even research between Overlords and Subjects. However, should players find themselves performing lower than other empires, they may offer to be Subjugated to potential Overlords instead.

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Players may even cheese this process in Stellaris by unemploying all workers in their planets to greatly reduce production, as this makes them look far inferior to their targets and makes them likelier to accept them as Subjects. Afterward, players can restore their current state after a month, which should hardly affect their overall performance. This way, players not only get to perform at their usual pace, but the bonuses from an Overlord’s assistance can benefit them far greater compared to when they receive mere levies from Subjects.

8 Europa Universalis 4

Destabilize A Larger Nation Via Vassalization

Regardless if players go for a manageable or a difficult start in Europa Universalis 4, their nation’s start in 1444 may eventually have another nation offer them Vassalization as a diplomatic event. A Vassal in the global state of Europa Universalis 4 is a semi-independent nation that offers regular military assistance and financial tribute in exchange for protection. As players, they can often Vassalize smaller nations through invitation, a colony release, creating a military-oriented march, or by force as a part of a peace treaty.

Playing a Vassal is often one of the best ways for players to break a large nation. Once they follow in the footsteps of their Liege and amass a sizable territory and army (but not enough to outpace their Liege), they can start a war for independence. This is often disadvantageous to the Liege, as other malcontent allies, Vassals, and even rivals may join the players. Should players become victorious, chances are these nations who aided them may become allies.

9 Crusader Kings 3

The Only Way As A Vassal Is Up

While players can technically start their Crusader Kings 3 gameplay as a Liege with Vassals to manage, they can also start their campaign as a lower-ranking Vassal serving a Liege. The government type of a Vassal can affect the taxes and levies they provide their Liege, but Feudal Contracts under the Feudal Government have some of the more flexible vassalage setups. Similar to AI-controlled Vassals, players serving as a Vassal can also freely serve or even scheme against their Liege to ensure their rise within the courtly ladder.

Players as Vassals can rise against their Liege in different ways. The more direct way to do this is to pursue the Administrator (Stewardship) Lifestyle and unlock the Meritocracy Perk, essentially allowing them to enact the “Claim Throne” Scheme in the hopes of waging total war against their Liege. They may start making alliances within and outside the domain, firing their Independent Faction when the Liege is at war or after a young heir takes their place after an unfortunate early death.

10 Tooth And Tail

Anthropomorphic Animals Lead A Wildly Violent Rebellion

When the Civilized take over a society of anthropomorphic animals amid a devastating food shortage, their resort to cannibalism sparked the fire of revolution in Tooth and Tail. In this simplified RTS, players don’t have the advantage of extreme precision or memorizing map layouts. Instead, players need to adapt quickly to randomly generated maps on top of the absence of single-unit control.

In Tooth and Nail gameplay, players straightforwardly manage resources through farms and windmills, which can then be used to field an array of pre-selected units before the match. As with guerilla tactics from rebels, a match’s finite food supply plays a vital role, where players can eliminate enemies quickly if they’re able to make a surgical strike against their farms, provided they don’t leave their own base defenseless.

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