I'm currently working on Chieftain level and I'm doing well as far as domination and cultural victory, haven't gotten a space race victory just yet (I almost did once, but there wasn't enough time to build the stuff, so I did a diplomatic victory) and I got plenty of cultural/dominations on settler, but I want to get some conquest victories in on this level. however I'm not sure which civ to start with.

also, I'm kinda stuck on Pangaea and Inland Seas maps, so I haven't tried the other types, so dunno about my strategy and all.

I think your choice of civ for conquest depends on how fast/early you want to go to war. If you want to go to war early, Caesar is a great choice. Beeline to IW, build some Praets and go to war.

Regardless of the civ you pick... the key to conquest is raze, raze, raze. Only keep cities that have wonders, founded religions, or have key resources. Otherwise, your economy will suffer from maintenance costs.

what about maps though?

I kind of want to try Archepelago with snaky continents (because I think the islands look more like an archepelago rather than a mess with that option), so dunno, maybe the russians dunno

the easiest maps to win by conquest are maps with only 1-3 continents, thus giving you the option to attack enemies immediately when you've got enough troops.
Early attacks on your neighbours are a bit more fun & challanging, but as you just got started with chieftain you may wanna try the more comfortable late-game attack first: Build units only so that other civs won't attack you just because of your military weakness and focus in the early game on expansion (by building cities NOT by conquering them), then on technology (forget about founding a religion) and after you've truely developed all your 6-9 cities (very much depending on map size) with forge, library and all the other basic, most important buildings start your first war on a neighbour - wheigh out seducive amounts of ressources and military strength. Often you may want to crush the civs that are small already first - as you will be stronger afterwards, thus preparing you for more challenging enemies you'll have yet to conquer...

well I haven't played the Archepelago map before and I've never relied on a strong navy in the civ series, so not sure about that map or strategies for naval warfare.

I'm currently working on Chieftain level and I'm doing well as far as domination and cultural victory, but I want to get some conquest victories in on this level. however I'm not sure which civ to start with.

Assuning the map size doesn't matter, my advice is to play as Inca. Settings: Great Plains, 1 AI, Duel map size, Chieftain level and Marathon game speed. Find the AI's capital and attack with your Quecha.

Inca's are the best for it I reckon. Several reasons.

Although it might not seem it at first, the UU is great for conquest. One of it's main advantages is that its very reliable in its job, and once its job is complete, you don't have to worry about it. Right at the start you build a barracks and quechuas, and use them to attack your closest neighbour. If he's near enough you take his citys, if they're far away the maintainance will be too much so you have to raze, but it still means you'll have more land for your settlers. After you've taken out one civ, quite often you can destroy a second and third. Just find the civs that don't have copper linked to their capital. He becomes obsolete quick, but you can go straight into using axemen and swordmen afterwards.

Once they've done their job, you can forget about them.With a civ like england or russia, you may wait for your UU expecting for it to take 2-3 civs, only for you to realise the AI has researched effective counters, or their civs are in bad positions to attack with the UU. The incans are agressive, which is obviously going to help in all your wars.

The other great thing about incans, is you can found an early religion. Do this, and spread it to a few other civs to get them friendly with you. If you can get an agressive civ like the aztecs to like you, then it'll be easy to get them to help you in your wars, and they'll like you, so you won't have to worry about them attacking you, and you can kill them off later.

The final thing about the incans is they're financial. You can stay ahead of everyone else in tech, so you reach all the good units first. Start wars when you get axemen and swordmen, again with macemen, and again with riflemen. With the free combat promotion, its almost like you've got a UU for every era.

It also means your cottage spamming will be more effective. The extra coins mean towards the later game, when you're near to dominating and you can't afford to take any more cities.... your economy will still be strong enough to support all the troops in enemy lands, when you're razing the last few civs.

As far as maps go...... Pangaea, greatplains style ones, or terra are the easiest. Ones where everyone is on their own island are much harder. The number of civs doesn't make a huge difference, but the sea level does. The higher the sealevel the less land, and the easier it is.

I think your choice of civ for conquest depends on how fast/early you want to go to war. If you want to go to war early, Caesar is a great choice. Beeline to IW, build some Praets and go to war.

Regardless of the civ you pick... the key to conquest is raze, raze, raze. Only keep cities that have wonders, founded religions, or have key resources. Otherwise, your economy will suffer from maintenance costs.

Without a doubt, one of the best pieces of advice for early warmongering.