Best Domination/Conquest/Military Victory Civilization?

[Plaidygami]

What's the best civilization for a conquest-type victory?

I know different civilizations are better for different situations, such as England doing best in an Archipelago-type map. But what are some other good civilizations for an agressive victory? Also please explain why/how.

[Matthew]

Probably China. 15% combat boost across the board, Chu's on a very powerful base unit and rack up massive exp with two attacks per turn, and the early gold from paper makers helps cover unit maitenance.

Arabia is great, too. Camels are as overpowered as Keshiks, but Arabia has a significantly better UA and UB than Mongols.

[Plaidygami]

What about Askia? I heard they get triple barbarian gold from camps, and their units get double exp or something?

[Ethel]

Montezuma is also nice jaguars are great for early agression (if you build afew then promote them their bonuses are incredible later). Also the culture for kills helps you max policies far quicker.

[BDK]

I'd go with Japan. Units attack with the same strength even when damaged. For example, if a unit with 6 men has an attack value of 6 while at full strength and only an attack value of 3 when at half strength, then the Japanese unit would still retain its full level 6 strength even after having lost half its men and the only way to render it useless is destroying it completely. Now that's awesome, especially when going for domination victory.

[ASHRA]

Depends on how you play it,now the hardest win is culture(for me),the earliest you can do is domination,later on you can do diplo and space.
My suggestion is to you to pick a civ who has good early units and a nice UA,exemples are,greeks,aztecs,babylons,celts,egypt,persians.You will have great early impact and will be able to scale with their UA.

[Twelvefield]

The Japanese are very tenacious, no doubt, but if you can strangle their economy, then all the units in the world won't save them. At least that's what I've learned being on the recieving end of that tactic, I'm not good with the Japanese.

I like to combine domination with another victory type. That is, I prefer trying for diplo or science, but if that falls through (often enough, that happens) then send in the troops. So, I don't normally play a super-aggressive early game. I like Civs that have strong mid-game units, I guess Napoleon is my favourite. Although his culture boost usually isn't enough to go for a culture victory in end-game on account that it peters out, the massive mid-game culture really aggravates the other leaders Gandhi-style, which allows me both cheap expansion and the option to engage in "just" wars on my own terms.

This is assuming a standard game. Duels on small maps are a whole different issue, in which case I would pick Montezuma or maybe the Celts, maybe maybe the Japanese.

[Plaidygami]

I usually play on Huge maps, and I typically pick Archipelago, though sometimes I play Continents.

Also, my playstyle is Turtle. I make a few cities, and then I fortify them as much as possible. I concentrate on building as many wonders as I can, improving the land as much as possible, and building a strong defense, and I worry about military units later (though I will make several in the early game, because I am not a moron).

With that having been said, I was considering Aztecs and Japanese, but Songhai looks good for attacking cities from the water onto land. England also proved to be very good for naval battles, for not so much for conquering.

[Matthew]

Do you have Denmark DLC? They are a one-trick pony, but that pony sounds a bit like your description. The movement bonus is poorly worded. You basically have your water movement bonus while moving on to land, which means a catapult with 5 movement can move up on to a hill, set-up and attack all within the same turn. Extremely situational, but when it works it is so awesome.

[Plaidygami]

I have all DLC. Denmark's movement is great, but that's the only thing they have. In late-game, they aren't that great, from my experiences.

[RedzoneX]

I am stunned that no one has mentioned Mongolia yet. The Keshik, with its UA-boosted 5 movement is almost certainly the best UU in the game. They don't even need anything else! Just build Keshiks and you can crush everything well up into the Renaissance.

[Twelvefield]

You might also like Kamehemeha. You can scout out the entire map finding good resources and landmarks before anybody else builds the first seagoing ship. As long as you manage your happiness well, you can strategically place your cities well before anybody else can find the best islands. He also has a decent early-game presence, which can be important for domination. The Moai lend themselves to defensive play, too. Kamehemeha is only truly powerful on watery maps, so he's an acquired taste as far as leaders go. Kind of like playing Celts on a forest map.

As far as Mongolia is concerned, I consider them difficult to play for domination. Everything depends on getting great keshik. After that, you are all-in. If you don't succeed conquering the entire planet with the keshik rush, there's no Plan B. If you are playing against Mongolia, you will do well if you can strangle their economy and resources. A keshik never built is worth three that you must destroy in the battlefield, think Sun Tsu.

[Plaidygami]

That's my issue - I wanna do a continents map now, and I don't think Polynesia would be very wise. >.>;

[Matthew]

Continents...

Dutch perhaps? Still need Frigate support, but Beggars get the "heal outside of borders" promotion right away, which makes cross-continental attacks during the Renaissance much easier.

Ottomans is another possibility. Less maintenance on naval, and upgraded Janissary keep their heal on kill promotion making for some scary infantry. Since it carries over, you just need to build some during Renaissance and keep them upgraded, can use whenever you are ready to attack. One of the most underrated Civs, by far.

[iHateMediaYT]

Probably Bismark because when attacks a barbarian encampment he has a 50% chance of them joining you or giving you 50 gold. So to build a big army Bismark would be the best.

[Finnway]

Germany, Japan, Rome, or Songhai.

Your focus in a conquest victory is to:
1) Level up an army.
2) Earn gold by conquering (this is even easier once the Honor policy-tree is complete)
3) Generate Culture and Science from puppet-states.

All four of these civilizations do this really well.

Songhai grants +300% gold from sacking cities. This is more than enough to upgrade your army, and the rest can be used to purchase items in cities.

Rome has +25% production toward any building that already exists in your capital. This greatly improves the effectiveness of puppet-sates, and makes it easier when annexing cities into your empire.

Japan's units always fight at full strength, even when damaged. This makes it easier to level up an army because you don't have to worry about losing veteran troops in risky situations. (China's ability doesn't have the same effect.)

Germany has a % chance to make barbarians join your side, and the Landschneckt has half the build time of a Pikemen. This makes it easier to build troops to garrison in cities, or to protect experienced units.


EDIT: Mongolia is good because Keshik's generate Khan's so fast. Since Khan's heal your army, you won't have to promote units with Medic.