War Crimes Expanded

War has rules, and now breaking them has consequences. War Crimes Expanded tracks how your empire fights, what it does with the people it captures, and how the rest of the galaxy responds. Bombard civilians, execute prisoners or harvest their organs, and you may find a coalition at your borders and your admirals standing trial.

Supports Stellaris 4.5.x. No vanilla files are overwritten.

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Infamy

A new resource that measures your reputation for atrocities, from 0 to 100.

• Notorious (25+), Infamous (50+) and Galactic Pariah (75+) tiers bring diplomatic penalties and worse opinion, though fear makes subjects more compliant.

• Infamy slowly fades during peacetime.

• At 50+, other empires gain the Crimes Against the Galaxy casus belli against you.

• Your reputation reaches new empires the moment first contact is made.

Prisoners of War

Destroyed enemy ships and defeated enemy armies leave survivors, and they become your prisoners. Machine empires and robot armies leave none. Decide their fate from your capital:

• Repatriate them home for goodwill and trust.

• Interrogate them for intel.

• Re-educate them into new citizens.

• Put them to work in Labor Camps.

• Or Execute them. Your armies gain Terror Doctrine and the victims' empire is left with Shaken Ranks, but it costs infamy and makes your ruler a war criminal.

Prisoner Programs

Set a standing policy for the prisoners you hold:

• Organ Harvesting strips them for Harvested Organs, which you can sell on the Galactic Market or spend on Transplant Programs and Organ Banks. It is lucrative, it is infamous, and it breaches the Galactic Conventions.

• Voluntary Donation trades early release for tissue and genetic samples, producing Donor Biomarkers for Gene Therapy Clinics and Public Health Initiatives. It is slower and costs no infamy.

• Penitent Sanctuaries is the spiritualist take, turning prisons into monasteries of atonement.

The humane programs occasionally produce a medical breakthrough: a burst of research, or healthier, faster-growing pops.

The Galactic Conventions

Four new Galactic Community resolutions that ban acts, not policies:

• Convention I: Protected Worlds forbids atrocity bombardment and glassing colonies.

• Convention II: Treatment of the Captured forbids executing, enslaving or harvesting prisoners, and drives the organ trade off the Galactic Market.

• Convention III: The Tribunal lets victors put war criminals on trial.

• Convention IV: Prohibited Arsenals forbids chemical weapons, minefields and engineered plagues.

Pacifist, egalitarian and xenophile empires champion them, while militarists resist. Break one and a humane member will call for economic sanctions against every violator. During an endgame crisis the Conventions are suspended under Emergency Measures, and restored once the galaxy is safe.

War Criminals and the Tribunal

Admirals who order atrocity bombardments and rulers who execute prisoners are marked as War Criminals. Under the Tribunal, lose a war and you must hand them over for trial, refuse and become a target, or decorate them as heroes.

Bring to Justice

A new war goal against infamous regimes: the loser pays war reparations and surrenders its war criminals for trial. While any Convention is law, the galaxy enforces it, and a strong neighbour will lead a coalition against any Galactic Pariah. Humane empires, including you, are invited to join it, and the victor is remembered as a Peacekeeper.

Scorched Earth

A new military policy. When a world is about to fall, raze it rather than hand it to the enemy, at the cost of a generation of ruin and your own people's resentment. Hive minds and machines get Self-Terminating Protocols.

Captured Officers

Destroy an enemy admiral's last ship and you may take them alive. Ransom them for energy and influence, interrogate them for intel, turn them to your side, or execute them.

Prohibited Weapons

A new military policy that unlocks the weapons the Conventions were written for:

• Chemical Bombardment, a bombardment stance deadlier than Armageddon.

• Void Minefields, a starbase building that damages every hostile fleet entering the system.

• Engineered Plague, an espionage operation that infects enemy worlds, killing pops and spreading to their neighbours until cured with Quarantine Protocols.

Defenders can research Vaccines, which slow the plague and cure it in half the time.

Hidden Infamy and Cover-ups

Some crimes happen out of sight. Organ harvesting, labor camps and engineered plagues add hidden infamy, which a yearly investigation may expose, and worse for having been hidden.

• Bury the Evidence, at the risk of the cover-up leaking.

• Stage a False Flag Atrocity and pin the massacre on a rival.

• Victims of atrocities can turn their grief into Martyr Propaganda.

Secrets rarely stay kept:

• Whistleblowers may force you to pay, silence them or come clean.

• The Expose Their Crimes operation drags a rival's secrets into the open.

• If you have nothing to hide, Invite Inspectors and earn the galaxy's trust.

The just path

Keeping your hands clean pays.

• Members who keep the Conventions earn their bonuses, and violators lose them.

• An empire with no infamy is Honourable, with more diplomatic weight, trust and goodwill.

• Hold prisoners humanely and you become Humane Captors: enemy troops would rather surrender to you than fight.

• Twenty unbroken years of honour make you an Exemplar of the Conventions.

• Commanders who fight clean become Honourable Commanders, the opposite of War Criminals.

Atonement

Infamy is not forever. Issue a Public Apology, fund Restitution to mend old grudges, pay Direct Reparations to an empire you wronged, or turn a bombed or scorched world into a Memorial.

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The AI plays along

Authoritarian, militarist and xenophobe AIs commit their share of crimes: they execute prisoners, harvest organs and burn their worlds. Pacifist, egalitarian and xenophile AIs push the Conventions, propose sanctions and run humane programs. Most AI members obey Convention II once it passes, but a ruthless few defy it. Every galaxy plays out differently.

Alternative version

Prefer your war crimes without the judgement? War Crimes Expanded ALTERNATIVE is a crimes-only version: no infamy, no Galactic Conventions, no tribunals and no just path, with extra crimes of its own. Use one or the other, not both.

Compatibility

• Overwrites no vanilla files. It adds its own events, resources, policies, resolutions and edicts.

• Should work alongside most mods, including UI overhauls: it doesn't replace any interface screens.

• Top bar: with Universal Resource Patch installed, the four new resources appear on the top bar automatically, using URP's reserved resource slots. No compatibility patch needed. Without URP, everything still works; the resources just aren't on the top bar.

• Safe to add to an existing save. Every empire starts on Standard Detention.

Load order

• Universal Resource Patch (optional, highly recommended)

• War Crimes Expanded