Tips for the Early Game?

[Recursive]

I've been trying to start playing on higher (medium) difficulties like King, and while I'm generally all right at warfare and playing in the mid/late game when I've already got a sizeable amount of resources to manage, I'm having a fair amount of difficulty keeping up with the AI in the early game.

I've been ending up in situations where the AI has a large tech lead and founds every other religion before I can found mine, builds all the Wonders before I can even research the techs, and it's starting to annoy me a bit.

This varies by game, and there's luck involved. I think one of my big problems is that I'm not prioritizing science enough in favor of gaining enough faith (I like Goddess of Protection because of the +10 HP in friendly territory, but I think I may need to give up on it in favor of something that requires less building), and I'm often pumping out Settlers because I want to stop the AI from settling too close to me, which increases the cost of techs, policies and so on.

So do you have any tips for getting ahead enough in the early game that I can keep up with the AI on tech and policies, without getting conquered or sacrificing my religious opportunities too much?

Policies being the least important of the three, as I don't typically shoot for a cultural victory - I usually go for Domination, Diplomatic or Science.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[CppMaster]

I play on Emperor and I'm used to the fact that I can rarely build a wonder later, early game almost never. I usually am behind in tech and policies until late renaissance, but that's fine.
Like you, I always pump all settlers that I plan to settle after monument, shrine, worker and warrior, because the earlier you found cities the better.
I would change this pantheon for sth more snowballing than healing and not requiring walls, which should be avoided if possible.
I don't worry about religion. If I manage to found it that's great, but even if not, I can adopt other religion anyway or conquer a holy city later.
Do you build enough workers? For me, the number of workers that I need is one more than number of cities, or 2 more if I have unique improvement.
You can try to cripple opponents by stealing workers and settlers and pillaging.

 

[chicorbeef]

What's your build order like? With the slow science and Goddess of Protection I suspect you're skipping Councils. I wouldn't skip them. Councils are especially important as Progress since Science=Culture with that tree.

I think if you provided a bit more details on your games it would be easier to give more accurate info

I think the only reason you're struggling is overexpanding and trying to build excessively expensive buildings (Walls/Barracks) and neglecting more powerful early infrastructure like Wells/Councils. Pick a more terrain-based/passive pantheon that provides quicker Faith and see how that goes. I don't pick Goddess of Protection as anyone but Japan/Babylon normally.

For defense, Horsemen are very valuable, defensive positioning of both cities and units, don't rely on Warriors, etc. (see Aggressive AI thread).

 

[tu_79]

I found that I can pick more wonders and found a religion without much stress when going Tradition. When going Progress, I'm expending all my resources on expansion, but I don't really master this policy, so I can't say for sure.

 

[CrazyG]

I've found that your second city should always build monument before shrine. It doesn't slow religion down very much and the culture is still super snowbally at that stage of the game.

 

[Recursive]

Thank you for the help, everyone!

What's your build order like? With the slow science and Goddess of Protection I suspect you're skipping Councils. I wouldn't skip them. Councils are especially important as Progress since Science=Culture with that tree.

I think if you provided a bit more details on your games it would be easier to give more accurate info

I think the only reason you're struggling is overexpanding and trying to build excessively expensive buildings (Walls/Barracks) and neglecting more powerful early infrastructure like Wells/Councils. Pick a more terrain-based/passive pantheon that provides quicker Faith and see how that goes. I don't pick Goddess of Protection as anyone but Japan/Babylon normally.

For defense, Horsemen are very valuable, defensive positioning of both cities and units, don't rely on Warriors, etc. (see Aggressive AI thread).

I almost always play Progress, as I've found it to be the "safe" option. Tradition requires a lot of city/specialist micromanagement and I dislike Authority due to the emphasis on city-state tribute; I prefer to be friendly with city-states.

I've been building Shrine/Walls/Barracks first in an attempt to get Faith, and Councils/Markets after, which I think is the big mistake I'm making. I'm gonna try that as suggested in my next game and hopefully it goes better than my last two attempts!

I also generally shoot for Temple of Artemis/Great Wall, but I think I'm going to aim for Cathedral of St. Basil instead, as that path provides me with more Science and I'm more likely to get it; while the Great Wall is good for defense, its utility has limits.

The issue I have with terrain-based/passive pantheons is that they're a bit less rewarding/chance-based, the AI is really good at getting Faith quickly, and I try to rush a religion as I don't want the AI to snag all the good beliefs before I can (in particular Hero Worship and Holy Law get snagged up quickly).

As far as overexpanding, the AI is absolutely ruthless in obtaining good settling positions and I prefer not to go to war that early in the game (another reason why I build Walls a lot). However your suggestion about Horsemen appeals to me, I think I'll look at building those rather than Archers/Comp. Bowmen for defense in the early game.

...Maybe I should just play Byzantium/Ethiopia to accommodate my particular playstyle. But I'll see how it goes!

I found that I can pick more wonders and found a religion without much stress when going Tradition. When going Progress, I'm expending all my resources on expansion, but I don't really master this policy, so I can't say for sure.

That does make sense...I think I will have to accept I'm just a warmonger at heart and I should settle for conquering most Wonders rather than building them.

I play on Emperor and I'm used to the fact that I can rarely build a wonder later, early game almost never. I usually am behind in tech and policies until late renaissance, but that's fine.
Like you, I always pump all settlers that I plan to settle after monument, shrine, worker and warrior, because the earlier you found cities the better.
I would change this pantheon for sth more snowballing than healing and not requiring walls, which should be avoided if possible.
I don't worry about religion. If I manage to found it that's great, but even if not, I can adopt other religion anyway or conquer a holy city later.
Do you build enough workers? For me, the number of workers that I need is one more than number of cities, or 2 more if I have unique improvement.
You can try to cripple opponents by stealing workers and settlers and pillaging.

I am indeed guilty of not building enough Workers, I like to go to war and improve every tile a lot so I'm going to aim for (1 + Era + # cities) Workers in my next game and see how that goes.

Founding a religion can be greatly beneficial and I don't particularly want to give up on that aspect of my strategy.

I've found that your second city should always build monument before shrine. It doesn't slow religion down very much and the culture is still super snowbally at that stage of the game.

I'll see how that works for me! Along with going for a more terrain-based Pantheon, I think it may be a great help.

Thanks guys, I'll try this advice out and see how it goes!

 

[crdvis16]

I've been trying to start playing on higher (medium) difficulties like King, and while I'm generally all right at warfare and playing in the mid/late game when I've already got a sizeable amount of resources to manage, I'm having a fair amount of difficulty keeping up with the AI in the early game.

I've been ending up in situations where the AI has a large tech lead and founds every other religion before I can found mine, builds all the Wonders before I can even research the techs, and it's starting to annoy me a bit.

I play Emperor these days and I am typically middle of the pack in science in the early to mid game and later should be near the top of the tech race if I am in a position to win. If you find yourself far behind in tech early in the game then, to me, that is an indication that something has gone wrong and needs to be addressed. It seems like you must be giving too little priority to science generation either by not giving councils/libraries their due or not getting trade routes going to a neighbor who has a few techs on you (those trade routes can be important for early science). Also, each starting policy tree has different methods for science generation behind them that need to be used. Tradition can work an early scientist specialist slot and plant an early academy, Progress can get science from population growth, and Authority can get it from killing units.

For consistently founding a religion I pretty much always go shrine first in my capital as getting your pantheon up and running ASAP is crucial to founding. Getting a pantheon with good faith generation is the key to founding. Look at your surrounding area and figure out if one of the terrain based pantheons will work, otherwise figure out if the play-style of your chosen civ lends itself to one of the pantheons. Some civs have pretty obvious synergy with certain pantheons (Russia and God of the Expanse, for instance). Also, If you're going Tradition you should prioritize Sovereignty for the +3 faith, if going Progress you should settle new cities early and often and get early shrines. As Authority I usually plan to let others found a religion and then just conquer it (unless maybe as the Aztecs). Good players on this forum could probably look at a screen shot of your starting location and surrounding area and tell you your best path to founding given your civ, neighbors, terrain, etc.

For getting early wonders, I find that I can probably grab a given early wonder if I make it a big priority. That means bee-lining the tech to unlock it (not unlocking any tech that isn't a requirement for it most likely) and making sure I have the necessary number of policies to unlock it as well. You can also do things like generate a great engineer in time for the wonder, chop forests during wonder production, have the gold to rush build, and send a production trade route to the city doing the building (assuming you can send those trade routes at the time). For most civs, just grabbing a single early wonder (and maybe also grabbing a policy specific wonder) is about all you should probably plan to do, though some civs can wonder-whore a bit even in the early game (Egypt and America off the top of my head). However, if you're falling behind in techs then your chances of getting a wonder become pretty slim.

This varies by game, and there's luck involved. I think one of my big problems is that I'm not prioritizing science enough in favor of gaining enough faith (I like Goddess of Protection because of the +10 HP in friendly territory, but I think I may need to give up on it in favor of something that requires less building), and I'm often pumping out Settlers because I want to stop the AI from settling too close to me, which increases the cost of techs, policies and so on.

As someone else mentioned, the only civ I've ever used Goddess of Protection with is Japan, and that's because he has synergy with those same buildings. There is most likely a bunch of MUCH better options for pantheon choice depending on your starting location and chosen civ. I typically do not build walls very early in a city unless it's a border city that is the most likely target of an attack. Typically shrines/monuments/councils/wells are higher priority, granary/herbalist only if I have nearby tiles that benefit, walls only early on border cities, and the barracks/forge/arena triumvirate are usually high priority as well once they unlock.

So do you have any tips for getting ahead enough in the early game that I can keep up with the AI on tech and policies, without getting conquered or sacrificing my religious opportunities too much?

Policies being the least important of the three, as I don't typically shoot for a cultural victory - I usually go for Domination, Diplomatic or Science.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Read some of the photo journals that people have made, or better yet- post screen shots of your games and ask people to give advice. Given a single screen shot showing your starting area the better players on this forum could tell you the best places to settle your cities, the best choices of pantheons, which neighboring civs are likely to give you problems, and could probably tell you the rough build order you should follow in each early city to set yourself up for success.

 

[Paramecium]

Current Game:

Spoiler Game Settings :

Civ: Aztecs
Map: Pangea
Size: Standard
Speed: Epic
Everything else: nothing changed from delivery (Short: ncfd)

A lot of changes for Aztecs with the current version 7-15, so I needed to test them for myself, a civ which I saw as some kind of less important now religionmonger and as the poorman's Warmonger. But please, see for yourself. I hope I got a good general view of the situation. If more information is wished, I can provide more information.

Spoiler Current Aztecs :

Spoiler Social Policy Choices :

Authority:

1. Opened it, went as fast as possible the left side of Authority to get the most out of city founding and conquering. Like you see, I didnt annex/puppet any city yet, but I razed cities from the Ottomans and Russia.
2. I demanded as much tribute as possible. Luckily, I had Maritime, 2 Culture and 2 Faith nearby. Always try to go for the heavy tribute, even if there is no difference in the culture gain from Authority's tribute bonus, it is the same for both, so sometimes you can demand just gold, if you need a shortterm steroid.
3. Finish Authority.
4. I tried to fight a lot and to peace out as soon as possible if it would trigger the golden age, so good use of my UA and to feed up my Jaguar Veterans, most of them now upgraded to spearmen and the time is beginning, that I need to research Steel, canceling out my whole Combat Advantage with making Jaguars obsolete.
5. Garrisons seem weaker to me now, the defensive advantage isnt that big anymore, it short you need less.
6. But therefore you have the last pick, you get your garrisons nonetheless. For Aztecs it is kind of weird, sometimes you get Jaguars, sometimes plain spearmen.

Fealty:

1. Just opened it, I wanted to play the full religion game and transcent into Domanition, but with options to Science and maybe diplomacy.

In the meantime:

Spoiler The Religion Approach :

Pantheon: Founded First
God-King:

• Come ON! You are playing "Divine Montezuma".
• I had no real good terrain improving belief choice and I didnt want to take some building or specific Improvement enhancing and Goddess of Springtime wasnt so appealing for me.
• God-King could benefit from the heavy growth I will try and it is completely passive
• As Aztecs, you wont have early faith problems as long as you can kill things so the early weakness of God-King might be covered

Religion: Founded First
Founder: Let's try an old combo again, "Councils of Elders"
Follower: Inspiration, still some kind of no brainer, if there is not somethingelse really good in the situation
Fun Fact: I somehow hoped and thought, that my Prophet will be born in my capital. He was not, he was born next to Uluru...

 

[Paramecium]

Somehow I could not write more. ^^
I might continue later. Btw, I got both St. Basil's and Haggia sophia, so I could pump out a lot of religion stuff. Fun Fact again, I had to build Basils in the city next to Uluru and haggia sophia in the capital. But you have to enhance in the holy city ...

 

[Stalker0]

One quick tip....never lose units. No matter how juicy the target, never sacrifice your unit for an AIs....especially early in the game. You can't afford the hammers to replace them, and once their promotions get to a certain level they become very very powerful.

 

[chicorbeef]

I've been building Shrine/Walls/Barracks first in an attempt to get Faith, and Councils/Markets after, which I think is the big mistake I'm making. I'm gonna try that as suggested in my next game and hopefully it goes better than my last two attempts!

Well there's your primary problem right there. Not building Monuments! And not just your second city, you want to build Monuments first or second in every city. (And invest in them in you can).
You should also be rushing the +2 production/+2 gold policy first and foremost when playing Progress because that helps so much in getting up off your feet, unless you have a strong improvement-based pantheon (eg. you picked Springtime and have plantations on open ground), or you're playing the Mayans or Huns or Polynesians and you want to build your UI ASAP, in which case you go Liberty and then the +2 production/+2 gold policy (sometimes you can go Liberty--->Organization---->Fraternity---->Expertise on a high Production/low Food start, but it's really situational). Or play Carthage and rush Fraternity and use the free Gold/God of Commerce to spend Gold on everything.

I also generally shoot for Temple of Artemis/Great Wall, but I think I'm going to aim for Cathedral of St. Basil instead, as that path provides me with more Science and I'm more likely to get it; while the Great Wall is good for defense, its utility has limits.

Temple of Artemis and Cathedral of St. Basil are not exclusive, you can build both if you want. However I find that as Progress there are often more pressing matters and tech paths (eg. rushing Trade/Calendar/Fishing or whatever resource/building techs you need, and building Settlers/military early game) There are usually better places to dump hammers in than Great Wall in that era, but I suppose if you're rushing Engineering anyway it could be worth going for (eg. as India or something).

The issue I have with terrain-based/passive pantheons is that they're a bit less rewarding/chance-based, the AI is really good at getting Faith quickly, and I try to rush a religion as I don't want the AI to snag all the good beliefs before I can (in particular Hero Worship and Holy Law get snagged up quickly).

You should consider other beliefs too, things like Way of Transcendence and Council of Elders (which has a great synergy with Progress, see CrazyG's post on the "Your strategy with Religion" thread) and Theocratic Rule are all worth going for imo.
The thing with Goddess of Protection is that it's Faith payoff is slow. It takes time to get Walls/Barracks up in every city, so unless you're playing a civ that benefits off rushing them (eg. Japan/Babylon) or have a high production/gold start I would consider other pantheons. Yes other pantheons may provide less faith overall but you can get the Faith online much faster, and that helps a lot. +2 faith for 50 turns is better than +4 faith for 20 turns.
Also there are lots of situational pantheons. Purity, Sun God, Spirit of the Desert, Springtime, Renewal, God of the Sea, Nature, etc. all come to mind as terrain-based pantheons I've founded with before, usually without a Faith-based civ. There's also the Open Sky/Tundra pantheon that I haven't tried yet but could still be very good.
Also if you're playing Russia God of Expanse is awesome, Aztecs are great with God of War, Songhai/Carthage are great with God of Commerce, Goddess of Beauty is a great Tradition pantheon, there are like a million different pantheons, going the same each time is not the best idea.

I am indeed guilty of not building enough Workers, I like to go to war and improve every tile a lot so I'm going to aim for (1 + Era + # cities) Workers in my next game and see how that goes.

Founding a religion can be greatly beneficial and I don't particularly want to give up on that aspect of my strategy.

Well that's probably why you don't like resource-based pantheons Build more Workers (you are playing Progress after all) and see how that goes.

As far as overexpanding, the AI is absolutely ruthless in obtaining good settling positions and I prefer not to go to war that early in the game (another reason why I build Walls a lot). However your suggestion about Horsemen appeals to me, I think I'll look at building those rather than Archers/Comp. Bowmen for defense in the early game.

Expand enough to get a Religion, your Monopoly and enough nearby strategics, and set up "blocker cities" to define your land and prevent the AI from pouring into your heartland. Other than that, how much do you need to expand?
I usually go for 8-10 cities as Progress, though I've had fun with 6-7 cities and 12-14 cities as well. Those are some ballpark numbers.

 

[vyyt]

Yeah, I think the 2 obvious problems here are delaying monuments and not building horsemen.

 

[tu_79]

I sometimes take Goddess of Protection when I should have taken Authority for survival, but took other policies. Having your units healing +10 HP extra is quite good. Founding with GoP is not that difficult, but the economy suffers a bit because you have to rush buildings that are only useful for warring and it takes 2 gold from each city, so it's hard to pay the upkeep for your army.
Once I have economy back to its rails, is a fine pantheon to have for wide and defense.

 

[Owlbebach]

The only advice i can give is - try to think at least 5 or 6 steps ahead. I mean really do the maths.

Like really try to calculate something like "if i build a worker - the worker will give me 1 extra hammer per turn in this city in 10 turns and 2 additional gold per turn after 20 turns. Instead of that i can build monument, that will speed up my culture by 2 culture per turn and thus i will take next policy 10 turns earlier, which will grant me 1 additional hammer in every city, which is better (or worse) than building a worker"

Given what you describe and wrote i can see so many wrong ideas that i am just too lazy to discuss all of them. It will take a wall of text to explain each of them, but the only real answer for every of them is "do the maths each time you build something, take policy, chose a tech to research". Do the maths WITH NUMBERS.

EDIT: and yeah, Progress is the most risky policy tree, Authority is safe

 

[chicorbeef]

I dislike Authority due to the emphasis on city-state tribute; I prefer to be friendly with city-states.

This alone is kind of a bad reason to dislike Authority. The city-state tribute culture is only relevant early-game in the Ancient Era when you're not befriending CS anyway (and a lot of times I barely even utilize it because I just don't have the opportunity to do so). By the time you unlock Emissaries this bonus is nearly irrelevant as a sole reason to tribute city-states. And Authority actually has a lot of Production and warring ability (killing the civ who could get a ton of CS allies later, taking Vassals, completing those insane "capture X City" quests) to play Diplomatic nicely.

 

[Recursive]

I've since played another game (on King) with these tips and they've been very helpful, thank you everyone!

I play Emperor these days and I am typically middle of the pack in science in the early to mid game and later should be near the top of the tech race if I am in a position to win. If you find yourself far behind in tech early in the game then, to me, that is an indication that something has gone wrong and needs to be addressed. It seems like you must be giving too little priority to science generation either by not giving councils/libraries their due or not getting trade routes going to a neighbor who has a few techs on you (those trade routes can be important for early science). Also, each starting policy tree has different methods for science generation behind them that need to be used. Tradition can work an early scientist specialist slot and plant an early academy, Progress can get science from population growth, and Authority can get it from killing units.

For consistently founding a religion I pretty much always go shrine first in my capital as getting your pantheon up and running ASAP is crucial to founding. Getting a pantheon with good faith generation is the key to founding. Look at your surrounding area and figure out if one of the terrain based pantheons will work, otherwise figure out if the play-style of your chosen civ lends itself to one of the pantheons. Some civs have pretty obvious synergy with certain pantheons (Russia and God of the Expanse, for instance). Also, If you're going Tradition you should prioritize Sovereignty for the +3 faith, if going Progress you should settle new cities early and often and get early shrines. As Authority I usually plan to let others found a religion and then just conquer it (unless maybe as the Aztecs). Good players on this forum could probably look at a screen shot of your starting location and surrounding area and tell you your best path to founding given your civ, neighbors, terrain, etc.

For getting early wonders, I find that I can probably grab a given early wonder if I make it a big priority. That means bee-lining the tech to unlock it (not unlocking any tech that isn't a requirement for it most likely) and making sure I have the necessary number of policies to unlock it as well. You can also do things like generate a great engineer in time for the wonder, chop forests during wonder production, have the gold to rush build, and send a production trade route to the city doing the building (assuming you can send those trade routes at the time). For most civs, just grabbing a single early wonder (and maybe also grabbing a policy specific wonder) is about all you should probably plan to do, though some civs can wonder-whore a bit even in the early game (Egypt and America off the top of my head). However, if you're falling behind in techs then your chances of getting a wonder become pretty slim.

Yeah, neglecting growth and science was definitely the issue. Pushing it too far causes happiness issues but the opposite is even more fatal from my experience. And I've experimented with different pantheons a little bit: I really like God of the Expanse as it fits well with my early expansionist playstyle. I underestimated Russia's bonuses until I fought them and lost so many units to their UB; it's powerful late game, and their other bonuses sync well too.

I also built Monuments immediately after Shrines (built it first in my second city) and I founded second rather than last, which was a big improvement from last time, using God of the Expanse.

Temple of Artemis and Cathedral of St. Basil are not exclusive, you can build both if you want. However I find that as Progress there are often more pressing matters and tech paths (eg. rushing Trade/Calendar/Fishing or whatever resource/building techs you need, and building Settlers/military early game) There are usually better places to dump hammers in than Great Wall in that era, but I suppose if you're rushing Engineering anyway it could be worth going for (eg. as India or something).

In my most recent game I went for Great Library/Cathedral of St. Basil/Forbidden Palace instead, teching mostly on the top for Science instead of the bottom of the tree. I'm most interested in Wonders where city placement or being the one to construct it first matters a lot, along with the ones that provide game-long bonuses. Got all of them, too, and horsemen were helpful in maintaining defenses - although I still lost a lot to attrition when William decided he wanted the settling spot I'd stolen next to his lands - luckily it was surrounded by Marshes and Hills and had Walls, so it withstood the siege.

You should consider other beliefs too, things like Way of Transcendence and Council of Elders (which has a great synergy with Progress, see CrazyG's post on the "Your strategy with Religion" thread) and Theocratic Rule are all worth going for imo.
The thing with Goddess of Protection is that it's Faith payoff is slow. It takes time to get Walls/Barracks up in every city, so unless you're playing a civ that benefits off rushing them (eg. Japan/Babylon) or have a high production/gold start I would consider other pantheons. Yes other pantheons may provide less faith overall but you can get the Faith online much faster, and that helps a lot. +2 faith for 50 turns is better than +4 faith for 20 turns.
Also there are lots of situational pantheons. Purity, Sun God, Spirit of the Desert, Springtime, Renewal, God of the Sea, Nature, etc. all come to mind as terrain-based pantheons I've founded with before, usually without a Faith-based civ. There's also the Open Sky/Tundra pantheon that I haven't tried yet but could still be very good.
Also if you're playing Russia God of Expanse is awesome, Aztecs are great with God of War, Songhai/Carthage are great with God of Commerce, Goddess of Beauty is a great Tradition pantheon, there are like a million different pantheons, going the same each time is not the best idea.

I'll look into some of these other beliefs next time I play. Council of Elders seems interesting, and I get your point about it taking a while.

Well that's probably why you don't like resource-based pantheons Build more Workers (you are playing Progress after all) and see how that goes.

Still was a bit slow in building up enough Workers, but it turned out all right. Gonna need to prioritize them as soon as I can get them built in 1 turn.

Well there's your primary problem right there. Not building Monuments! And not just your second city, you want to build Monuments first or second in every city. (And invest in them in you can).
You should also be rushing the +2 production/+2 gold policy first and foremost when playing Progress because that helps so much in getting up off your feet, unless you have a strong improvement-based pantheon (eg. you picked Springtime and have plantations on open ground), or you're playing the Mayans or Huns or Polynesians and you want to build your UI ASAP, in which case you go Liberty and then the +2 production/+2 gold policy (sometimes you can go Liberty--->Organization---->Fraternity---->Expertise on a high Production/low Food start, but it's really situational). Or play Carthage and rush Fraternity and use the free Gold/God of Commerce to spend Gold on everything.

Temple of Artemis and Cathedral of St. Basil are not exclusive, you can build both if you want. However I find that as Progress there are often more pressing matters and tech paths (eg. rushing Trade/Calendar/Fishing or whatever resource/building techs you need, and building Settlers/military early game) There are usually better places to dump hammers in than Great Wall in that era, but I suppose if you're rushing Engineering anyway it could be worth going for (eg. as India or something).

You should consider other beliefs too, things like Way of Transcendence and Council of Elders (which has a great synergy with Progress, see CrazyG's post on the "Your strategy with Religion" thread) and Theocratic Rule are all worth going for imo.
The thing with Goddess of Protection is that it's Faith payoff is slow. It takes time to get Walls/Barracks up in every city, so unless you're playing a civ that benefits off rushing them (eg. Japan/Babylon) or have a high production/gold start I would consider other pantheons. Yes other pantheons may provide less faith overall but you can get the Faith online much faster, and that helps a lot. +2 faith for 50 turns is better than +4 faith for 20 turns.
Also there are lots of situational pantheons. Purity, Sun God, Spirit of the Desert, Springtime, Renewal, God of the Sea, Nature, etc. all come to mind as terrain-based pantheons I've founded with before, usually without a Faith-based civ. There's also the Open Sky/Tundra pantheon that I haven't tried yet but could still be very good.
Also if you're playing Russia God of Expanse is awesome, Aztecs are great with God of War, Songhai/Carthage are great with God of Commerce, Goddess of Beauty is a great Tradition pantheon, there are like a million different pantheons, going the same each time is not the best idea.

Well that's probably why you don't like resource-based pantheons Build more Workers (you are playing Progress after all) and see how that goes.

Expand enough to get a Religion, your Monopoly and enough nearby strategics, and set up "blocker cities" to define your land and prevent the AI from pouring into your heartland. Other than that, how much do you need to expand?
I usually go for 8-10 cities as Progress, though I've had fun with 6-7 cities and 12-14 cities as well. Those are some ballpark numbers.

I tend to do that - and then pick a neighbor to go to war with and vassalize or conquer. Once they're down, look for another one and so on. Even if I'm not going for Domination Victory, I just have so many more resources if I swallow up another empire. It outweighs the diplomatic malus.

The only advice i can give is - try to think at least 5 or 6 steps ahead. I mean really do the maths.

Like really try to calculate something like "if i build a worker - the worker will give me 1 extra hammer per turn in this city in 10 turns and 2 additional gold per turn after 20 turns. Instead of that i can build monument, that will speed up my culture by 2 culture per turn and thus i will take next policy 10 turns earlier, which will grant me 1 additional hammer in every city, which is better (or worse) than building a worker"

Given what you describe and wrote i can see so many wrong ideas that i am just too lazy to discuss all of them. It will take a wall of text to explain each of them, but the only real answer for every of them is "do the maths each time you build something, take policy, chose a tech to research". Do the maths WITH NUMBERS.

I feel like that'd slow down gameplay to a crawl. To be fair, one doesn't play Civ if they're looking for a fast-paced game, but still.

Maybe I can print out some reference sheets or something.

EDIT: and yeah, Progress is the most risky policy tree, Authority is safe

This alone is kind of a bad reason to dislike Authority. The city-state tribute culture is only relevant early-game in the Ancient Era when you're not befriending CS anyway (and a lot of times I barely even utilize it because I just don't have the opportunity to do so). By the time you unlock Emissaries this bonus is nearly irrelevant as a sole reason to tribute city-states. And Authority actually has a lot of Production and warring ability (killing the civ who could get a ton of CS allies later, taking Vassals, completing those insane "capture X City" quests) to play Diplomatic nicely.

It's not the sole reason why I dislike it. I just find that to maintain a huge Authority-esque army I require a lot of gold from CS tribute, although now that I recall that was a game I played Goddess of Protection in and that probably cut into my revenue quite a bit. I probably just need to focus more on my economy.

However, the main reason I don't like authority is that my science and culture bonuses mostly come from killing units and conquering cities, and I don't like to go to war in the early game. I prefer to snowball a bit and build up a strong military. Sometimes I wait for Casus Belli to pass in the WC before I start conquering my neighbors.

Again, thank you for the help guys!

 

[Owlbebach]

I feel like that'd slow down gameplay to a crawl. To be fair, one doesn't play Civ if they're looking for a fast-paced game, but still.

It will, but only for couple of games. Soon you will get used to it and will do such decisions fast. Based on my experience - i usually make first 10 or 20 turns, after that i stop, think for about 1 or even 2 hours trying to asseble all pieces of a puzzle and then execute the gameplan for the whole game

EDIT: Usually there are several key elements in you game, thopse that you want to get ASAP and you focus on getting them and build the rest only if you have free hammers and/or time.