I'm making the switch from Noble to Prince and I've noticed a big flaw in my game. I was wondering if anyone could help me out out with some guidelines.
I don't put enough military pressure on my neighbors. I'll rush axes if I have a pushover close to me, but after that I tend to wait a long time until upgrading my army. My last game was particularly bad, because I had nothing but than axemen and a few longbowmen until I teched communism and rush-bought a kill stack of redcoats (playing elizabeth is crutch for me). In the meantime I was caught in 3 opportunist wars that hampered my tech advantage. I tend to avoid machinery because it messes up the GS-liberalism slingshot, but should I forgo that trick in order to build macemen? Is it better to smash and grab some land with macemen or merely try to keep the power ratio up to point where no one is likely to attack me?
Edit: Do you typically prefer a large siege stack or a espionage fueled revolt to bring down cultural defenses? I tried the revolt strategy, but it seemed like slowing down my tech just so I didn't have to build a dozen trebuchets was impractical.
As you move up the levels, you'll find that forgoing an essential tech like Machinery for the sake of being able to lightbulb Liberalism is less and less viable.
Machinery enables some essential technologies such as Optics (to meet and trade with other civs on a map with some form of continents), Engineering (for Pikemen, Trebuchets, and +1 movement on roads), and helpful units like Crossbows and essential ones like Macemen. Delaying it will simply hamper your game. You can still research/trade your way through the mid-game military/economic techs like Civil Service, Machinery, Engineering, and Guilds while relying on Great Scientists for the Liberalism pre-reqs (Philosophy, Paper, Education).
I usually indulge in a big mid-game medieval war fueled by Macemen, Pikemen, Knights, Longbows, and Trebuchets, with a few Xbows thrown in. Remember that Macemen can get City Raider promotions and can later be promoted to gunpowder units (like Riflemen or Grenadiers) which can only inherit CR promos.
Finally, I find accumulating early/mid-game espionage points is too costly (unless I build the Great Wall, pop a Great Spy, and settle him--even then, his effectiveness starts to run out by mid-game). I usually build a stack of about 8-10 accuracy-promoted Catapults to remove cultural defenses, and a big stack of Trebs to help with that and to do the collateral damage.