In CiV 5 culture actually has a huge influence besides expansion because with every social policy you basically get a wonder for free!
So why not combine culture and conquest instead of science and conquest?
Your general goal:
Big Ben ("-25% Gold cost for purchasing items in cities, additional +2 Culture per
Specialist in all Cities") +
Mercantilism (Commerce tree, "Purchasing items in cities requires 25% less Gold") +
Militarism (Autocracy tree, "Gold cost of purchasing units reduced by 33%")
What do we get from this? Units are cheaper than city states
Some examples:
Rifleman: 220
Cavalry: 270
Artillery: 390
Infantry: 300 !!!
Atomic Bomb: 640 
So that's just awesome. City focus on gold and purchase multiple units per turn with your GPT + great merchants.
Other advantages of Autocracy:
Autocracy ("-33% Gold Maintenance cost for Units")
Police State ("-50% Unhappiness in Occupied Cities"):
Capture a city, wait a few turns until the revolt's over and annex. Your unhappiness will be increased by maybe 1
Then you can purchase one unit per turn right at the front line (or multiple atomic bombs if you feel fancy 
).
I guarantee you, you'll blitz away your enemies!
I've only tried this strategy once with Egypt on emperor, small continents, standart speed.
Wonders:
Stonehenge, Oracle, Sistine Chapel (+33 % culture is huge), Porcelain Tower (you need every GS you can get), maybe Taj Mahal and of course Big Ben!
Social Policies:
* I opted for the +33% wonder bonus first,
* then went with Piety tree (Egypt has a lot of happiness because of their UB burial tomb (+2 happiness) -> "Mandate of Heaven" + "Theocracy" is pretty good for culture),
* followed by Commerce -> Mercantilism and Autocracy (available with artillery)
My conquest started at 1670 (turn 244) which is quite late but you don't have to waste any turns on production. I won around 1880 (I nuked england with 10 atomic bombs
).
@1670 I just had 4 cities (don't expand too much because culture costs will explode)
Here are two safe files if you want to see it in action (1st one: beginning of conquest, 2nd one: at the end, nuke fun
)
I'm sure, you can win much quicker. I didn't abuse it 100%. And the balance between science and culture could have been better as well but for the first try, I was more than happy ^^
Oh and one obvious thing I completely forgot to mention: Build culture buildings instead of science buildings (although you should have one large city dedicated to science).
So why not combine culture and conquest instead of science and conquest?
Your general goal:
Big Ben ("-25% Gold cost for purchasing items in cities, additional +2 Culture per
Specialist in all Cities") +
Mercantilism (Commerce tree, "Purchasing items in cities requires 25% less Gold") +
Militarism (Autocracy tree, "Gold cost of purchasing units reduced by 33%")
What do we get from this? Units are cheaper than city states
Some examples:
Rifleman: 220
Cavalry: 270
Artillery: 390
Infantry: 300
!!!Atomic Bomb: 640
So that's just awesome. City focus on gold and purchase multiple units per turn with your GPT + great merchants.
Other advantages of Autocracy:
Autocracy ("-33% Gold Maintenance cost for Units")
Police State ("-50% Unhappiness in Occupied Cities"):
Capture a city, wait a few turns until the revolt's over and annex. Your unhappiness will be increased by maybe 1
Then you can purchase one unit per turn right at the front line (or multiple atomic bombs if you feel fancy ).I guarantee you, you'll blitz away your enemies!
I've only tried this strategy once with Egypt on emperor, small continents, standart speed.
Wonders:
Stonehenge, Oracle, Sistine Chapel (+33 % culture is huge), Porcelain Tower (you need every GS you can get), maybe Taj Mahal and of course Big Ben!
Social Policies:
* I opted for the +33% wonder bonus first,
* then went with Piety tree (Egypt has a lot of happiness because of their UB burial tomb (+2 happiness) -> "Mandate of Heaven" + "Theocracy" is pretty good for culture),
* followed by Commerce -> Mercantilism and Autocracy (available with artillery)
My conquest started at 1670 (turn 244) which is quite late but you don't have to waste any turns on production. I won around 1880 (I nuked england with 10 atomic bombs
).@1670 I just had 4 cities (don't expand too much because culture costs will explode)
Here are two safe files if you want to see it in action (1st one: beginning of conquest, 2nd one: at the end, nuke fun
)I'm sure, you can win much quicker. I didn't abuse it 100%. And the balance between science and culture could have been better as well but for the first try, I was more than happy ^^
Oh and one obvious thing I completely forgot to mention: Build culture buildings instead of science buildings (although you should have one large city dedicated to science).
