How to conquer/win wars when using Progress/Tradition

[TheOrpheus]

Hey all. Been playing for years but I more or less rely on Authority to get it done. Oftentimes it ends up being a culture victory, but by then I have conquered half the map anyway. Any time I try to play another opener, I just fall behind or waste too much production/time on defensive wars. In my recent few games, I've went Brazil/Progress. I tried just turtling up and playing nice but war is inevitable and either I waste too much time/production on defending, or if I feel an offensive war is needed, it's just a slog as my army has no bonuses, other than maybe religious beliefs/buildings that I might have, and I often can't take enough units/cities to justify it.
It seems if you play passive the AI will just attack you anyway, and if you go on the offensive it's pretty hard to win, especially when UUs are involved. etc

So what's the secret to winning on Progress (and Tradition, although right not i'm more interested in playing around with Progress) ?

With Brazil, the Bandeirantes is great for getting a culture/money/science boost mid game but nothing special in terms of combat, and there are no other inherent combat bonuses. My neighbour was Pocatello and his relentless expansion made it so I had to at least try taking him out. But his combat bonus in friendly lands made is hard to make any real headway.

I built Terracotta and Teocolis to try getting more out of combat but I'm not sure it helped much.

Do i need to focus more on diplomacy? Only select Civs with defensive bonuses? Invest in military techs and try to get an edge that way?

BTW I play King (sometimes emperor for conquering with a strong Civ), standard speed. Lately I use Milae's map.

Thanks.

 

[Anarcomu]

Play defensively, build forts, try not to loose any unit, snipe enemy units with archers.
Use scouts to reveal terrain before attacking, to avoid taking uninformed risk.
Use terrain at your advantage, use river when possible, bribes other civs to attack your enemies.
Also, if you have a strong faith production, you can take the "zealotry" enhancer bonus. It allows you to spend faith on army, on a single city, which in turn free production for other things. And you will only have to build up one city for XP/bonuses to military.

You might as well try to do coop wars, so your enemy will have to split their army in two, and you will make a longterm friend in the process. Keep units alive : as long as you get XP, the war is worth doing.

 

[Trumtram]

I second "Zealotry". If you take "Fealty" in addition, you can essentially grind down any opponent with it, at least during the middle game. It's not the most effective play, but I just love to buy me some knights with faith and yalla them into my enemies. Plus, the freed up production can constantly be put to good use on buildings, which in turn generates culture, thus helping you with social policies (Progress).

But I'm only a King player, so make of it what you will.

I'm also one of Michaelgo's viewers on YouTube. He plays an older version of the mod, but always on Deity difficulty. His current game with India might give you some ideas on how to play.

 

[hokath]

feel an offensive war is needed, it's just a slog as my army has no bonuses, other than maybe religious beliefs/buildings that I might have, and I often can't take enough units/cities to justify it.

Yeah I think this is a key point. I often fall to temptation and try to flip a winning defensive war (low investment) to an offensive war (high investment) and it often just fails.
I think you identify the main reason is that if you aren't set up to be militaristic and therefore have no +% combat bonuses, or high XP units, or both (btw once you get several +% combat bonuses it REALLY shows) you are at a disadvantage against someone who does and, in a world where the AI is decent and the game is balance, you really *shouldn't* be able to just crush them 1v1! For this, you should engineer a war on multiple fronts with allies. So your question

Do i need to focus more on diplomacy?

is probably "yes"!
For example I often find early on there are no real diplomatic blocs, it can really help if you can start to identify a long-term rival and try to make friends with their neighbors, eventually pressing that Denounce! button. You don't even have to destroy them -- in fact wiping them out might destabilize your bloc -- just stop them being a threat to save you from fighting a costly war.