Thanks for the info.
I agree that a defensive war at 0.7 is winnable. We had just crushed the first army from the east in about seven or eight turns. They wouldn't talk peace, though, and while we were committed on that front got backstabbed from the west by our quadruple-pleased neighbors. We could not stop them, too, and got rolled up.
Both were defensive wars. The frustration stems from having an otherwise very favorable map, doing everything in our power to make friends and stave off aggression, and being completely unsuccessful. My friend and I have thousands of hours in BTS, and probably another thousand in RI since we discovered it last year. Quite a few games. We're not new. We played BTS on Emperor (because Immortal+ is just outrageous) and play RI on Monarch.
We just really don't like it when conditions align that make the game unwinnable no matter what we had done. If there's no way to secure a reliable diplomatic relationship on one front and it's economically impossible to have enough forces to fight both, how are you supposed to handle opponents on both sides? They had a total of three nations on the continent to our two, and brought offensive stacks of eight and ten, respectively from the east and west. Both armies exceeded rural logistics.
I'm obviously a bit salty, but please don't take any of this as an attack on the balance of the mod. It's a true delight, and has become the measuring stick for any future offers. V and VI are of almost no interest now because of the relative absence of real depth.
The same thing happened with XCOM: Long War. Goddamn is that mod amazing.