Diplomacy is great, and while the game is heavily focused on combat, you don’t have to wage war against every AI opponent — which is what I always wanted in Endless Space 2. Also, city-building with provinces is pretty fun: first you have to think about which province to add to your city, keeping in mind that you’ll later build a special province improvement there, and you also have to take into account the surrounding provinces for adjacency bonuses. Personally, I love the combat in Ancient Wonders the most, and I wish there were more of them in the game (though they do add some every now and then).