Cant say I had many issues playing a non-violence route. I've just completed my first successfull playthrough of the game by trying out a new (for me) tactic. Completing the game required 5 attempts total (this was the first with this tactic though). Caveat: classic (no ccs) and democrat victory conditions, though that second strikes me as an epic pointless feature, the true hurdle in this game is getting a liberal in as pres and then getting incumbents out. I cant see it being possible to complete without these steps. Once those 2 are done then you probably couldnt stop elite liberalism even if you tried, so the difference in the 2 victory conditions is likely a couple of months on 'w'.
I didnt fire a single gunshot during the game (ed: actually i did shoot a mad cow:P ), my leader (and 90% of my organization) never commited any crimes. Was never seiged by any group. Took about 15 yrs to liberate the country, much of that waiting for the removal of incumbents.
It takes a little longer maybe than a militarized terror campaign (which i guess galvanizes the voters), but everytime i've tried to be rough I end up getting seiged. This shouldnt be an issue, I did rapidly discover that a reasonable block of liberals with .45's will waste seiges, but my main issue is that they like to drop onto safehouses containing non-combatants, and I cant find anyway to lift seiges from another safehouse with a small militarized squad.
Tactic I followed:
So. Started as high in persuade and cha as I could, quickly recruited a bunch of hippies and college students to make into a core squad and grabbed a liberal judge who I was lucky enough to stumble over. Once i had maxed my leaders intital recruit cap I never recruited with him again and he 'retired' to teach and write.
Key was to raid the sweatshops early with my core squad until they themselves were able to recruit, grabbed a few sweatshop workers, made a range of uniforms (only ended up using lab coats and security guard uniforms), then set those to churn out t-shirts till arrested and deported.
From here my game was pretty static. I sent my leader to school to learn to teach and to learn law, I disguised my core squad and raided sweatshops repeatedly to farm juice, any encounters were always solved through intimidation. Recruited locksmith, yoga instructor, roster complete. Sent locksmith and yoga instructor to leader to learn teaching, then taught leader their skills. sent everyone to leader to recieve universal training (dodge, persuade, security, law is all i need).
From here it was a lot of snooze with 'w' held down, at some point i grabbed a programmer and set him to hack in little bursts and accumulate evidence, basically waiting for free speech to come around a bit so i could start the paper. Then built that and more 'w' with everyone writing bar a few sweatshoppers for income.
Yay Liberalism!
EDIT: I had only 4 members who ever accumulated rap sheets. My 3 saboteurs that did the sweatshop raiding and the hacker. As soon they began to build even moderate numbers of charges i'd put them on legal fundraising till caught. Between a sleeper judge and them all able to selfdefend it was pretty easy. I had one go to jail on two occasions earlygame due to hostile juries, everyone else walked every time.
Since im going for a more combat route this next time, I may as well ask. Is there any solution to extreme heat other than moving safehouses every few days? 'cos I can see that getting exceptionally tedious.