best civs to play

[Larwin]

I won my first reagent game with hiawatha building mostly mounted warriors. is there another civ I could try for a domination win using mainly their UU? I tried hiawatha on a standard map but the teching gets into calvary and pikemen before I can cover most the map with my empire. I won on a small map.

edit: Knights not Calvary. didnt get that far lol.

 

[Cyc]

You can try the Celts or maybe the Chinese. Both have excellent UUs.

 

[Lanzelot]

On bigger maps you could also try the Ottomans. The Sipahi is a real killer...
The general rule for quick and bloody conquest-type games is: the bigger the map, so more advanced your opponents are going to be by the time you get there, and consequently the later your UU should come. E.g. on pangea or big continents:

• Tiny map: early acient age unit like the Egyptian War Chariot. (The Hittitian Three-Man Chariot is not as good, because it's too expensive for that early time. And the extra defense-point is not even needed on lower difficulty levels, while on higher difficulty levels you can't attack that early anyway, because the AI starts with a big pile of extra units and on top of that can out-produce you easily in the early stages.)
• Small map: standard ancient age unit like the Iroquois Mounted Warrior or the Celtic Swordsman. (Persian Immortal is too slow.)
• Standard map: early middle age unit, which means a Knight replacement. Chinese Rider and Indian War Elephant are beasts. On higher difficulty levels, where you are likely to suffer losses through AI counter-attacks, the Japanese Samurai with his extra defense-point is good. On lower difficulties, where the AI usually doesn't have the resources to counter-attack you, the Arabian Ansar is as good as the Chinese Rider: same speed, and the missing defense-point won't matter, because it won't get attacked often anyway. And it's even 10s cheaper, so you can have more of them.
• Big map: late middle age unit, which means the one and only Ottoman Sipahi! On lower difficulty levels, the Russian Cossack may also be good, because against weak defenders the "blitz" ability can actually be used and results in many elite promotions and consequently much higher chances at getting many MGLs.

On archipelago maps, the Scandinavian Berserk is the killer unit. Combine it with the Great Lighthouse, and you'll conquere the world in no time.

PS: of course it also depends on the starting location and your neighbors. If you start next to someone who doesn't start with Bronze Working, and you happen to have horses directly in your start location, the Egyptian War Chariot can run over a close-by neighbor before they even get spearmen (or a significant number of them). But if you start next to the Greeks, who can build Hoplites right from the start, you'll have a hard time...
Similar problem in the middle ages on not so small maps: if the French start far away from you, they might already have Musketeers by the time your Knight-based units get there... Then you better want to wait for Cavalry.

 

[nyarmondt]

The Roman Legionnaire, or the Byzantian Dromon on archipelago map (both small)