Empire Crashing

[plasmacannon]

I'm having some issues expanding peacefully on larger maps with lots of empty space between me and the next empire. The costs seem to escalate to the point where I find myself running at 0% Research with an angry empire on one side and barbarian cities on the other. Both streaming in units.
I can built up enough units to defend the cities (3-5 in each), but advance very slowly after that.
It usually happens around the time before I can build wealth.
It's probably the unit maintenance cost, but there shouldn't be such a heavy cost to research, just because I used production to build more defenders. That seems odd.
If my horse city isn't connected and mounted built, the adjacent empire usually has a stack roaming around my empire pillaging, preventing me from improving my empire.
Is this part of some Infinite City penalty?

By the way, I only had 5 cities. IIRC, I was Stefen I of Hungarian and Rome was next to me. No SVN. Slowest game speed.
Though this has happened on other games as well.

I think I need to improve my gameplay. A little more challenging on Raging Barbarians, which I like their battles in the early years.
It's just that, well, what do others do here when the foes are so far away and still in Classical times?

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

You probably need to expand slower. The fact that you can settle a city does not mean you need to do that ASAP; your break-even point is a good indicator of when you need to stop expanding - if you research under 50%, I'd think twice about founding another city before economy improves (obviously there are times when you need to do that, especially if you have close neighbors, but I tend to use this as a rule of thumb). But another important component of your tactics - especially with Raging Barbs - is strategically placing observers (ideally recon units promoted for +1 visibility) to reduce barbarian spawn (again, ideally to the point when you can reliably build and not lose land improvements, thus improving your economy).

 

[plasmacannon]

The problem with Recon units is that Barbarian bowmen are out far earlier than we get those units and they have 100% vs recons. So, I tend to guard hilled choke points and mined hills with archers. I guard cow, corn, horse and other flatland resources with militia then shortswordsmen. Preferable with at least Land Tactics and Pacification 1, eventually adding combat 2.
Yea. I used to use 30-50% Research as an indicator. Depending how important that next city location is. Since I rarely ever have Copper, if I actually have it nearby, I go for it.
If I am playing Suleman of Turks with Leg/Exp I usually make it a point to expand as fast as possible. In other games where I build the Pyramids before my first settler, I have expanded rapidly after that to catch up to other empires.

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

You don't need to actually fight barbarians with recon units - the very idea of placing them at proper points is that no barbarians will come from there anymore. If placed on a hill, it will see quite a lot of territory, and barbarians will not be able to spawn there - when placed on, say, a peninsula, you will not have to worry about it anymore. And even if they stand in the way of advancing barbarians from elsewhere, since they have 2 moves, with some active management, you can always outrun them and then return to the same spot.

 

[plasmacannon]

Sure. Works well spotting up territory near a coast or lakes especially from a hill, but heavily wooded and hilled maps tend to reduce their visibility. ;(