My Thoughts...

Police State - Obvious reasons.
Vassalage - Decided this over nationhood because nationhood seems to benefit you more in a defensive position. Lower Unit cost and added experience seems to be better for a large war monger.
Emancipation - Toward the end game, it becomes almost required in order to avoid disorder.
State Property - Makes large empires cheaper, great for keeping costs down while you wipe out your enemies.
Theocracy - Added experience for units is again very beneficial with giving troops that edge in battle. Plus you prevent any enemy religions from seeping in.

These are the civics I usually run when I war monger. What do you people usually use and perhaps what are some critiques you might have?

I rarely change civics for special occations, and I like to have short wars with few losses, but if I have a long war or a big rearment, I change to police state if I can and maybe vasselage (I always use emancipation when I can, and have never used theocracy :lol: )

And welcome to CFC :)

Police state if i expect a long war. Else i don't bother changing anything :p

Nationhood is better, the ability to consricpt them is a great way to raise an army quickly and mowed down the enemy quickly. And also because vassalage is expensive

From someone who tries to be in a continuous state of war from beginning to end (its most fun) there are too extremum depending on your leader traits.
If you are financial the money way is best. democracy, free speech, emancipation, free market/envrio, theocracy. Farm towns and use a couple of cities for great gen level 4/5 units. Keep your pop in cities at 20 or lower. Towns are more valuable then specialists in terms of production plus its easier to keep the people happy. Use a lot of siege weapons as missles on bot defense and offense as you can afford it and your regular units aren't that high in xp.
If your imp/char use the super unit strat- heriditray rule/police state, state property, vassalage (the bigger the empire the more the free troops), caste system (they don't get so unhappy), theocracy. Lots of windmills, workshops, police troops (with a few towns in cities for money).