Hm I haven't ran into these problems on a couple games so far with BNW emp difficulty, its felt like there's been a lot of vying for territory for the whole time, both games were random maps that ended up being continents. I managed to conquer the majority of my continent before Renaissance (both times the AI attacked me first, defended the attack then counter-attacked with the GG generated) on the first game then took a cultural route and finished up with a science victory. Yup, science victory with early expansion and conquest on a 5+ difficulty.. and it was quite fun. To me this was very different than being pigeonholed into a victory type early on in G&K based on ancient/classical choices and a welcome change.
The second one in progress I'm hoping to try a more diplomatic approach with the new world council/UN mechanics to test them out, I'm playing more of a peacekeeper and helping defend against conquest, have been friends and denounced both by just about everyone so far lol.
Both times the AI was warring like crazy on the other continent and was sending out colonists/archaeologists to outlying islands and the naval warfare has been GREAT.
I think the focus has been shifted (or maybe more evenly spread out is more accurate) to late game for expansion/epic conquest with a lot of the BNW mechanics, but its quite possible to wage early wars and build out if you keep your cities micromanaged to stay small and mix units with infrastructure. You just have to be willing to run a deficit and have some unhappiness in your early civ until you catch up with your own expansion. Historically the civs that tried to keep expanding without slowing down once in a while to let their economy catch up have failed, and I think BNW does a good job of mimicking that phenomenon.
