Yes. That is actually what I'm saying.
I'd also add that embedded in Sonereal's remark is the implication that the mechanics of many things, including diplomacy, changed substantially in BNW, which means that if you are not familiar with BNW then you really have little basis from which to offer the OP any help or consolation. In short... he's right.
In my most recently completed game, an eventual conquest victory on Standard size Emperor Pangaea as Assyria (though I was a lock for eventual Diplomatic or Science victory as well), I ran through one of my textbook playstyles to make conquest completely viable:
- Start off Tradition, make a few early conquests before meeting too many Civs, and unless there are new luxury goods nearby, just stick with taking new cities rather than founding your own. Prioritize capturing cities with luxuries (or in this case, I admit I was helped by conquering a city with Mt. Kaliash nearby... +2 happiness from it).
- Nab at least part of Honor as I usually do in conquest games, at least for an early General and boosted XP. I will also say that by mid-game, it is
very useful in my experience to combine Tradition's Oligarchy (no gold maintenance for garrisoned units) with Honor's Military Caste (+1 happiness, +2 culture per garrison). This goes a surprisingly long way to maintaining gold, happiness, and your lack of culture-focused buildings (which are usually all problematic in parts of conquest games), while allowing you to maintain more pointy sticks to discourage invasion from unhappy neighbors.
- Pick up Patronage, some or all of it. Vow to protect every city state, and crank out as many quests as you can manage. You don't have to nonstop conquer; bribe a few wars between the AI while you increase your city-state influence. Scholasticism can keep your science up (though I do take at least the Rationalism opener as well), but the biggest thing is that by mid-game, city-states can
really keep things afloat between food from Maritime allowing you to focus production, the occasional free military unit, and best of all significant happiness boosts.
- Assuming you've bribed some AI wars, go on a liberating spree after you have taken a few capitals.
In my most recent game I took out most of China right away and then most of Japan after that, while the other AI finished them off. I eventually brought both of them back to life and had
zero warmonger concerns showing from any leader. At one point I conquered three cities in quick succession from the Iroquois (unpleasant, but necessary to take out the capital) and barely even felt the unhappiness - and only got minor warmonger penalties as well, since they were a fairly large Civ at the time. I don't think my happiness was anywhere near red after my second capital capture for the entire remainder of the game. I ended up puppeting about half the cities and annexing the rest... by the end I didn't even need to bother with Courthouses, and I didn't make too many happiness buildings in my owned cities either. And even as I took the last capital, half the Civs remaining in the game still loved me
(edit: forgot to mention, I also had -15 or so unhappiness from ideology since I did not invest much in culture and another Civ was "Familiar" in influence over me. Even with that, the lowest my happiness dipped by that point was +17 or so )
Anyway, that's just one option to make conquest more viable. It's not always a blood and guts battle with happiness, though if you pursue nonstop conquest all game and ignore city-states, it certainly can be tough.
