Balancing Peaceful Growth & Expansion Through War

[wazabe]

Hi all,

I have been playing a ton of multiplayer games with friends, and it more or less always comes down to who is able to snowball better in the decisive periods of the game. If you're a peaceful player or lack expansion targets, you tend to fall behind. (No surprise here.)

My suggestion: How about making domestic border expansion harder while at war? One of the reasons wars are not all that bad is that your core empire keeps growing and compounding. There seems to be no real dynamic that distinguishes a prospering peaceful empire from a warmongering empire when it comes to the "old" cities. (Amenities aside.)
Now, if an empire is at war, let's reduce the rate of border growth a lot. That way, there is a need for consolidation of power through periods of peace one the one hand and a benefit to growing organically on the other. It may still be possible to buy tiles for all I care.

Is anyone aware of any mods in that direction? Or are the some obvious issues with this ideas I can't think of now?

 

[Galvatron]

It is not enough to succeed, others must fail.

 

[Naokaukodem]

I would say an issue to that idea is that having borders growing slower, especially if you can still buy tiles, is not THAT crippling. We might have to stop them completely in time of war, forbid tile purchase and add -20 loyalty to cities not connected throught territory to your capital. Then, the need to grow your empire organically might be interesting.