I know I'm far from the first one to notice that warmonger tends to be muuuch easier, but I am finding myself pretty consistently thwarted when I play Science or Diplo (ironically not so much culture, since you have a strong incentive to buddy up with any runaway enemy civ, which in turn makes you very secure. And the bonuses to trade route science make playing from behind much more feasible.), but to put it simply I am finding that I am pretty much universally behind on science and policies compared to almost every other civ. Even playing a science civ like Russia and getting off to a really good start with 5 great cities, and 3 extra ones by mid medieval, I still wind up in a position where even the lowest score ai can compete with me (I'm currently dealing with a giant knight swarm from Mongolia. Despite them having had to do a city sprawl over a bunch of tundra and mountains, their military output is bonkers, and their laser focus on military means that they are actually beating me to some military techs, despite my tech lead.), and I'm about 40 science score behind the current tech leader, an Ethiopia who is managing wonder spamming, a war with a neighbor, and that tech all at the same time.
It *feels* like I am being inefficient, because I am consistently being left with mediocre progress compared to the ai. The one time I have managed to actually exceed the ai in tech was when I was playing Korea. It didn't happen until about Rennaissance/Industrial Era, and it didn't become a tech lead that was more than a tech or two until I did a swarm of tech theft *and* conquered two civs on the map.
Then I play a Ghenghis Khan game, get declared on by 4 different civs (all my neighbors) at once, after eating just one nation, only to turn around and swat two of them down while conquering the other two (didn't have to form a defensive line or rely on protection of my cities that much, my heavy skirmishers just obliterated anything I pointed them at). And all of this while I'm maintaining a rough tech parity, due to how much bonus research I'm pulling from casualties and conquest.
I'm really hoping I'm just playing poorly, and the victory conditions are not that lopsided
It *feels* like I am being inefficient, because I am consistently being left with mediocre progress compared to the ai. The one time I have managed to actually exceed the ai in tech was when I was playing Korea. It didn't happen until about Rennaissance/Industrial Era, and it didn't become a tech lead that was more than a tech or two until I did a swarm of tech theft *and* conquered two civs on the map.
Then I play a Ghenghis Khan game, get declared on by 4 different civs (all my neighbors) at once, after eating just one nation, only to turn around and swat two of them down while conquering the other two (didn't have to form a defensive line or rely on protection of my cities that much, my heavy skirmishers just obliterated anything I pointed them at). And all of this while I'm maintaining a rough tech parity, due to how much bonus research I'm pulling from casualties and conquest.
I'm really hoping I'm just playing poorly, and the victory conditions are not that lopsided
