War without war

Usually I go war with smth like 6 composites + scout or 6 crossbowmen + horsemen. Usually I have much less units than AI.
Usually building maintance is much bigger than units maintance.

The idea is:
1. spawn a lot of units. A lot of melee, several ranged.
2. declare war
3. stay in def
4. take some cities for peace
5. Also ask tribute from CSs.

-you dont care if someone DoW you, backstab you or whatever
-you dont loose anything in war[your tiles are not pillaged, caravans are not pillaged, ...] You pillage.
-cities you get come with full population, so they are really nice
But:
-your gpt is very low
-your happiness is damn low [If you get additional 16 population city on turn 140 it is hard to support it]
-your spend a lot of time building army.

Best civ for it is Germany. Once Civil Service is opened, spawn UU and soon u will have a huge army and can start war. I tried it today on immortal through liberty - it was not bad, not good. Something average.

Is there any sense of playing like this? And may be some1 can suggest any improvings?

On prince level you do not need big army for this. Just a few archers. Declare war, wait for enemy, kill his units. Most of the time, AI proposes city for peace. Declare war on another CIV... Repeat.

There is a sense in this strategy, because you can make wars on your terrain, and you are prepared for incoming enemy. But this is rather boring style of play

I feel that the game needs more incentives for war and that you should be able to declare several different kinds of war with different goals in mind. In any case, another idea is to go to war early to capture some well needed workers. Another spin on early war, is to level up some of your units by having a weak city bombard them, and then heal.