So I have been hitting a wall every game with this mod

[Cade McCaslin]

It seems that as soon as there is no longer room for expansion, civs will start declaring war to get more land, cities etc... and they seem to always pick the weakest civs to invade, which is smart, a vast improvement over the base game. My issue is that most games I like to go for a diplomatic victory with wonderspam early on. So I get a few wonders, grow, and focus on building new cities and getting buildings with a minimal military (1 unit per city.) this works pretty well (for a while), I'll get friendships with multiple civs, some reaserch prodjects, and 4-5 embassy's in citystates, giving me a big lead in the world congress when it arrives. However, as I stated earlier, as soon as the renaisannce rolls around I start getting declared war on by civ after civ and it escalates pretty quickly to the point that Im at war for 15 turns, get a declaration of peace with nothing extra added in, and then as soon as the declaration ends, they declare war again, everyone hates me, they take my city states, and I'm subjected to and endless stream of invaders who take every isolated city but fail to take anything with 60+ strength. I get to my unit cap and I still have the weakest army of anyone. How are they breaking the unit cap? How to I break this cycle? One game I made it to the modern era and as soon as ghandi got nukes he would just nuke me every time he got one. Is there any way to win this game without doing an early rush?

 

[displayer]

You've got to humble them, or they'll walk all over you.

What difficulty are you playing on?

 

[CrazyG]

Peace + Diplomatic victory don't work together that well. Competing for city states tends to upset other civs, so you should prepared to fight. What wonders are you rushing? Early game wonders don't support diplomatic victory that well.

Post your social policies, its the most important aspect. If you want to stay somewhat small and peaceful, going for culture or science victories is probably wiser.

 

[Minh Le]

Its unavoidable to have war when youre pursuing Diplomat Victory, because taking CSs alliance piss everyone off. So you have to play as a semi warmonger to be able to achieve it, maybe conquer 1 or 2 civs and make them your vassals. Vassals will vote for you for the World Leader too.
Late game war is a thing. The key is you need to be ahead in tech and able to have nuke first. Having nuke change the way wars are playing entirely. I have games where I go Tradition - Statecraft - Industry and was able to take 2 vassals pretty easily with only 5 cities and minimal unit supply using my advanced units, and nukes. Having a few bordering puppets means I dont care about enemies nuking me, they will alway target the closet cities which are my puppet, so it doesnt hurt my economy. Going Freedom next plays very well with this strategy since I can buy experienced units right away to replace lost troops and the extra supply from population is very helpful. Up to some point I can have a decent navy to go around and liberate lost city states in earlier war.
It will be significantly harder if there is a snowballing warmonger in your game though. Like a city states eater Mongolia who has 999 cities and tons of units and even ahead in tech. If its the case you will have to take earlier action and slow down his progress, otherwise you will lose for sure.

 

[TranceBlossom]

You don’t have to do an early rush, but you do need units for the AI to respect you. I used to play like you and focus buildings and wonderwhore too, but you’ve gotta build some units if you wanna play on higher difficulties. You can still squeeze in a wonder or two, but if you ignore your military you’ll definitely lose.

 

[chicorbeef]

Diplo Victory often involves aggresively spreading your Religion, eliminating competitors for alliances and taking Vassals. If you don't want to fight early on, expand away from the AI (don't expand in places you can't defend! Pay attention to how exposed your cities are to ships too.) Using Navy to keep the world in check in the midgame is a good idea. Use Religion/Trade to pacify others if possible.

I would say it's more worth investing in your Religion than in Wonders early on, if you aren't already.

 

[crdvis16]

I think you can definitely play a small, peaceful diplo game. I do just that with civs like Germany and Austria. You can not ignore your military, though. If you build a military early and avoid the initial DoWs it will be much easier to have some allies. It sounds like you are playing super greedy (no military, wonder spam, going overboard with CS allies). Try this instead:

1) Don't wonder spam. Just build those wonders that are essential to your strategy.

2) Stay near your military cap throughout the game, including early game and don't neglect military techs and upgrading your units. Getting into early wars with civs that could have otherwise been friends can lead to you being the pariah the whole game.

3) Learn how to make friends. Don't try to spread your religion to someone that already has their own, do spread to a civ without a religion. Don't spy on someone that you want to be friends with. At least early on, only ally CSs in your immediate area that you can help in war (allying one across the world is just asking for it to be eaten). Consider giving gifts to potential friends and consider denouncing civs that your potential friends denounce.

 

[Rekk]

Note that gifts count as part of the "We're trade partners!" opinion modifier, which maxes out at 35 positive opinion and decays at 1/turn. How.much positive opinion you get from a favorable trade deal/gift depends on a whole number of factors, but if you make a good enough offer that brings them to 35, more gifts after that won't do anything.

 

[vyyt]

In addition to all the good advice above, I would single out 2 important things:

1) Build up your military - it will deter the (some) aggressors. You mention you reached the cap at some point - did you build the buildings which increase the cap?

2) You cannot be friends with everyone. Watch the AI alliances and conflicts form and join some. If you denounce/DOW a civ others hate, they will start liking you more.

As others said above, if you appear weak, the hawks will go after you. If you snatch wonders or city states, it makes perfect sense that the competing civs will be angry with you, doesn't it? And once you reach later stages of the game, they will try to stop you by all means if you are sailing to victory or taking it away from them.

 

[Favorius]

This happens a lot to me. When you are a strong contender for victory, your rivals will bribe other civs to wage war on you. You will lose some trade routes, CSs they are allied will be in war with you and etc.

You hit unit cap but still have weakest army, are you behind in tech?

Did you build military/defence buildings in all cities and expend generals/admirals for +2 suppy?

Do you upgrade your units ASAP?