You win CiV by having powerhouse cities.
Sure, but you still need to be scientifically advanced to be efficient militarily.
Yes of course - I was making the point that my preferred VC still requires scientific prowess but not super-big home cities; and taking other's cities from them slows them down.
I rarely initiate early wars, but concentrate on getting a strong science/production platform... but once that's in place I get cracking, usually during Renaissance.