early war cripples everything - not fun...

If you want to avoid warmonger penalties (diplo or happy) don't take cities.

Simple. Also don't start wars. If someone says "Backstab is such a harsh term" I don't think you get a diplomatic penalty for defending yourself then taking one of their cities. In my early BNW games, Japan was always attacking me. Eventually I and others made it so there was no more Japan. I still won diplomatically.

You can't be everyone's friend, you are better off forcing your religion and ideology to be the world one if you can. I even think I should have killed a City State that was totally in my way in my last but one game. But just attacking your nearest neighbour automatically because they share a border with you should have diplomatic consequences.
 
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