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[Rowanas]

Imperialism 1 and 2 count, I think. I can second Factorio, too.

I can't recommend Victoria 2 or Crusader Kings 2 on the basis of relaxation, though, as the mechanics are very in-depth and you can get invaded at any time. The wrong move in Victoria 2 can have long lasting economic or political effects, meaning you need to plan more than relax. But they're good games in their own right. If you do find them up your alley, try Gangsters: Organized Crime. You can build a criminal empire in a very relaxed fashion.

++ for Imperialism 2. Such a classic.

[KingofstarrySkies]

cor, i love arkham horror. never got to finish the game we did but i was a big fan of it

[hector13]

Imperialism 1 and 2 count, I think. I can second Factorio, too.

I can't recommend Victoria 2 or Crusader Kings 2 on the basis of relaxation, though, as the mechanics are very in-depth and you can get invaded at any time. The wrong move in Victoria 2 can have long lasting economic or political effects, meaning you need to plan more than relax. But they're good games in their own right. If you do find them up your alley, try Gangsters: Organized Crime. You can build a criminal empire in a very relaxed fashion.

Too bad Gangsters is broke

[Caz]

Also, it's often referred to as Cracktorio both fondly and alarmingly, as you may find it's 3AM and you're telling yourself 'I just need to finish this railway line to get this ore to the furnaces...'

I have about a hundred hours on that game and I've barely built one railway (and only because the oil was too far away). Nevermind actually get to rocket-launching stage.

You never run out of things to do on that game, it's endless.

[George_Chickens]

Imperialism 1 and 2 count, I think. I can second Factorio, too.

I can't recommend Victoria 2 or Crusader Kings 2 on the basis of relaxation, though, as the mechanics are very in-depth and you can get invaded at any time. The wrong move in Victoria 2 can have long lasting economic or political effects, meaning you need to plan more than relax. But they're good games in their own right. If you do find them up your alley, try Gangsters: Organized Crime. You can build a criminal empire in a very relaxed fashion.

Too bad Gangsters is broke

What's the problem with it? Won't run on Windows 10?

[Reelya]

Also, "slow paced and relaxing" is not how I'd describe Gangsters. Arcane and frustrating is the best way to describe it.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/gangsters-organized-crime/reviews/reviewerId,5205/

First off, Gangsters is not for the faint of heart. If you like your games simple, and/or don't have more than an hour a day to devote to them, then pass Gangsters by. It will disappoint and madden you; you will end up like all the mainstream reviewers out there who gave it a low score out of sheer frustration. But if you like a challenge--for instance, if you're the kind of grognard who begins to salivate at the sight of two hundred page rulebooks--and if you have the time to devote to exploring its secrets, Gangsters is about as deep and satisfying a computer game as you've ever likely to come across.
...
Of course, with this level of complexity comes a corresponding complexity in the interface. Many have taken the game to task for its supposedly convoluted and over-busy interface, but having spent a good deal of time with it, I beg to differ with those assessments. It does take some getting used to, and those who look with disdain upon manuals and help files will likely never figure it out.
...
Also, as thorough as the manual is, it just isn't thorough enough. Read it, of course, and read it well, but in addition I'd recommend reading anything else Gangsters-related you can get your hands on. In particular, the Readme file for the Platinum version of the game (I don't know about others), and the Prima strategy guide (available in abbreviated form online at Prima's website) were invaluable to me.

The game is divided into two halves. The first half is the planning half, in which you get an unlimited amount of time to plan the coming week's activities for all your mobsters. This is where you plot your expansion, plan the demise of your enemies, purchase new businesses, new land, new men, and new equipment, organize and reorganize your assets, set your diplomatic posture, assign your accountants and lawyers their tasks, and so on. Then, once you are satisfied with all the orders you've given, you move into the second half of the turn, which occurs in real time. This is the "work week," in which you follow all your gangsters' progress from either an overhead or isometric view.
...
There are a few omissions in the work week portion of the game that are so obvious that they border on the unforgiveable. For instance, while incoming messages slow the clock to its slowest speed (i.e. the default speed, which isn't all that slow), they do not pause the game entirely, nor is there any option to make them do so. Instead, you have to sit with one hand poised over the pause key ready to pounce whenever there's an incoming message. Why? Because some of these messages are really important, and you will want a chance to scroll to the appropriate area of the screen to take care of whatever needs to be taken care of, such as your guys getting shot at. But that leads to complaint number two: many of these messages aren't very important at all, which means you'll be pausing and unpausing a lot for no good reason.

I also don't like the fact that the randomly generated mobsters you start with can have a huge impact on your success. Basically, this is because you need mobsters with a high Intelligence rating to successfully recruit new mobsters, which is your first priority in the game. Consequently, if none of your starting goons has a decent brain in his head, you can literally fail to get your enterprise off the ground.

So it's unplayable unless you read the entire manual and look up all the stuff online that you can, and it mulligans you with bad RNG starts that you'd only realize is a thing, if you go read all the online help. I also found the real-time phase to be stressful and not fun, for the reasons mentioned in the review.

[Robsoie]

JCloisterZone :
http://jcloisterzone.com/en/
A java version of the Carcassone boardgame, playable with one or multiple (competent) AI or other people.

Very relaxing play and rather interesting.

[Ozyton]

You mentioned Sim Cities. On the off chance you haven't heard of it there's Cities: Skylines which is basically that.

Astroneer is a planetary exploration game doesn't put any pressure on you to do anything aside from get oxygen which is essentially infinite. Right now there is no 'goal', so you can do just about whatever you want.

Slime Rancher, while it doesn't really have much in the way of building, is akin to Stardey Valley mentioned earlier but with even less pressure to get things done.

Terraria and Starbound could count I suppose, if you like building things with that side-on 2d look.

The Sims hardly needs any introduction, but if you like just designing and furnishing houses that could count too.

[Trolldefender99]

Does imperalism II let you continue after "end" or is that literally the end? Some games you can continue after the end, some you can't. Like EU4 the end date you can keep playing whether you win or lose.

Also, capitalism II was mentioned. But capitalism lab (which sadly isn't on steam) is such a massive improvement and its still continually updated, that its probably worth skipping C2 and getting CLabs instead. Except the downside is its quite a bit expensive compared to the older capitalism 2 that is on steam and its not on steam. Still, you got continued updates with capitalism labs, mods and its still updated and maintained..

[sambojin]

Some of these are on mobile or under emulators, and are thus, free! Some of them are a bit combat'y, but nice slow strategic combat, no real twitch reflexes needed.


M. U. L. E. (NES). OK, it's not that slow paced (everything is realtime), but it's not fast either. Business/resource sim where you try and out-compete your opponents by getting monopolies on various resources and selling during a market crash or random boom. An oldie but a goody.

FreeCol/Colonization (PC/mobile version doesn't work for me). Turn-based Civ-like where you conquer the new world. Half trading game, but with a bit of war thrown in at the end. Extra civs in the freeCol version (Russian fur trapping is crazy strong), but quite balanced otherwise. Be nice to the natives.

OpenTTD (PC, also on mobile but kinda hard to play). The transportiest train simulator you could ever want. Transport Tycoon is great. Rail doesn't really make that much money compared to air travel, but it's the fun part. Signals are an artform.

FreeCiv (PC/mobile). Just like Civ1/2, but free, and you can start with an explorer, so the early game isn't boring. Still nice and simple though, yet can be challenging at the same time.

Pirates! (NES). Float around the place capturing ships and looting towns, and in theory rescuing your family. The NES version has a very simple, quick menuing system and no dancing what-so-ever. Go for navigation, so you're faster than most other ships, for a relaxing time of it. Swordfights aren't too fast until the highest difficulty either.

Ghengis Khan 2 (SNES). Once you figure out what all the little symbols mean (read a FAQ), it's like mini-EUIV/CK2, but turn based. You can sort of turn your brain off while you conquer the known world and marry your daughters off to despondent generals. Can play it without combat turned on if you'd like.

Templar Battleforce (mobile). A mixture between Laser Squad/Xcom original and WH40k. Turn-based, enjoyable carnage, that never gets into Space Hulk levels of situational stress. You can also respec anyone to whatever in between missions, so you can't make wrong decisions on level ups (maybe on squad member purchasing, but not really). Satisfyingly strategic.

Stick Ranger (PC/mobile). Umm, it's an RPG party simulator, where your group kind of wanders along by themselves, you've just got to move them into the correct positions on a semi-regular basis. Later levels can be a bit rock/paper/scissors on what equipment will work, but overall it's simple and relaxing and enjoyable to watch/play.

Underhand (mobile and maybe PC). A mixture between Reigns and a cult simulator in card game format. More-or-less just resource management and understanding objectives, but with some very funny writing, scenarios and ways of completing missions.

The Incredible Machine (dosbox, works well on mobile). One of the original puzzle games, and still fun to this day. Work your brain in a non-timebased way. Rube Goldberg machines aplenty. Has sequels for more puzzles if you want.

Merchant Prince (dosbox). Trading with a bit of politics. Can get a bit boring, but you can also be Doge or the Pope. I liked it.

Settlers (dosbox). Kind of slow, but cutesy and very charming. Resource/supply chain simulator. Works well on mobile if you can setup a right-click function under Magicdosbox or something.

Lords of the Realm (dosbox). Conquer England with an invincible army of Irish Spearmen. Or, manage fields and build castles. Kind of micromanagement intensive each turn for best results, but also a good way of relaxing. Combat is slow and fairly non-strategic, castles can be min-maxed to hell, and once you've got some mercenaries you kind of just win. I still enjoy it though.

[Reelya]

Ghengis Khan 2 (SNES). Once you figure out what all the little symbols mean (read a FAQ), it's like mini-EUIV/CK2, but turn based. You can sort of turn your brain off while you conquer the known world and marry your daughters off to despondent generals.

This was a DOS game originally. They also made the Romance of the Three Kingdoms wargames which are a lot more detailed and complex but focus on China. Koei were a definite influence on other series, ROT3K games feel a lot like the strategic level of the Total War series, but with turned-based battles.

[sambojin]

Ghengis Khan 2 (SNES). Once you figure out what all the little symbols mean (read a FAQ), it's like mini-EUIV/CK2, but turn based. You can sort of turn your brain off while you conquer the known world and marry your daughters off to despondent generals.

This was a DOS game originally. They also made the Romance of the Three Kingdoms wargames which are a lot more detailed and complex but focus on China.

Yeah, I liked the worldwide focus of GK2 more though. And it's just not as fiddly in many respects. Easier to grasp (euros have knights, Indians have elephants, muslims have mamelukes, Japan has samurai, etc). Characters are easier to wrap your mind around too. Apparently there's quite a few romhacks for the Genesis version around as well for different scenarios (although I've only played the snes version). PC might be even easier to control with a mouse and all that, but console menuing is good for stuff like this anyway.

Pity GK4 never got a fan translation. There's even newer versions, but rom = free is nice, and you can use emulators on heaps of different platforms.


(if you do want a bit of fairly slow, relaxing, real-time combat, try Warriors Orochi 2 on the PS2 (under an emulator). Essentially a Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors mash-up but with a few weapon crafting bells and whistles included too.  A bit grindy, a terrible storyline, and completely non-historical, but splattering countless mooks has never been easier, and it's early enough in console specs that it's simple to emulate on fairly low-end hardware. There's little to no effort required to master all of a character's combos/moves, and with a decently specced weapon even tough bosses will go down like chumps. Relaxing in a brain-not-needed kind of way)

[Reelya]

While it's nice you can conquer the work in GK2, I did think that it loses a lot of flavor of the different cultures in the process. They end up being just more and more provinces to capture.

[Hanzoku]

If you like old-school, any/all of the Harvest Moon series might be up your alley. Peacefully build up your farm from a half-broken down ruin to the heights of prosperity while developing a relationship.

[Nelia Hawk]

"oxygen not included" is a great buildy game too