This happened to me few times. You can almost send your settlers unescorted. The UA is also useful to cross isthmus very quickly.
I think the new map scripting in BNW has made Denmark more useful. The new Pangaea maps on default settings are a snaky mess. Whether it's XB rush, artillery rush or tanks & planes, there's almost always a choke point that allows only one unit to approach, and usually at least a few points on the Pangaea with a sea or lake near a city you intend to take. Even if you could approach by land, sometimes that approach is forest hills, and being able to move your units into those tiles and fire in the same turn helps in a very noticeable way. (IMHO)
But, more importantly, IMHO, their UU and UA make swordsmen + siege rush more viable than it is for any civ but Persia.
Let's face it, traditional swordsmen + siege rush is inferior to XB rush because of certain key factors:
1) Ranged attacks are inherently superior. With enough units you can kill an enemy force without ever taking damage. They're better than siege because they can move and attack in the same turn. It's better to do less damage and never get hit than to do more damage and die.
2) The promotion path gets you Logistics and Range, which allows ranged units to decimate forces and attack cities from outside city attack range. It may take a while, but Range allows units can take out cities far more powerful than they should be able to, simply because they never take damage.
3) Yes, siege units can eventually do this, but they have limited visibility and need an extra turn to set up. Sometimes you never get that extra turn. Sometimes you only get to attack for one turn before you need to run away. As a result, they suck for barb quests because they need an escort.
4) You get Archery earlier, allowing you to earn these promotions earlier by doing barb quests and whittling down your first opponent's forces in the early game. The slower promotion to Range is the killer for siege.
5) Composite Bows are cheaper to rush-buy than any other unit with the same hammer cost. Ostensibly this was a balance chance to make city defense easier, but they overshot their goal on this IMHO.
6) Machinery is a very convenient and relatively cheap tech path. Physics + Steel requires much more beakers, even if you skip Civil Service. If you don't, it's waaay more beakers.
7) Iron is not a guarantee.
All of these factors have made siege rush inferior to XB rush, and this was NOT by design IMHO. It was a design oversight. A trivial fix to this would be to remove Logistics from the ranged unit promotion list for all but Cho-Ko-Nu, and reduce Cho-Ko-Nu strength slightly. (again) Or, make ranged units weaker in general, but give them a bonus when attacking while garrisoned. But, as things stand, XB rush > siege rush.
Denmark is the exception. Metal Casting is waaay less beaker investment, and berserkers are quite strong. 21 strength melee that early is tremendous. 3 moves + free pillage essentially gives them all the benefits of a horseman, and amphibious is extremely valuable in city attack because of rivers. They can damage a unit from across a river, survive the counter attack and pillage heal 3x the next turn. They can almost take down a city without ranged support, just by brute force.
And, unlike any civ but Persia, Denmark can in certain situations move and attack their siege units in the same turn. But more important than that is how effective berserkers are at being damage shields for siege units, soaking city attack damage. They remove the need to move and attack in the same turn, because they give siege units time to set up while they pillage-heal. Suddenly you have 24 strength (vs cities) ranged units instead of 11. With the level 2 promotion they become 28 strength vs cities. CBs with a level 4 promotion (logistics) are effectively 22 strength vs cities. Catapults are 48 strength at that point if you skip the +50% bonus. Of course, IMHO the optimal pathway is Range for Catapults, but that's beside the point.
Obviously the addition of pillage-healing really helped Denmark. Nobody benefits from it quite as much as berserkers do.
And, regardless of which era you start your war in, the ability to move and attack in one turn with siege is huge. Tanks that can land and move 6+ times in one turn are vicious. Ski Infantry that can land and move 10+ times in one turn, pillaging the whole way, are ridiculous. Rocket Artillery that can land, move 5 times and attack in one turn, are absurd. It doesn't matter whether you're doing a continental invasion or not. Just hop in the water and hop back out.
Bonus: Once you get Astronomy, Xbows with logistics can land, fire, fire and embark each turn. If there are no ranged units nearby, no one can counterattack. A small lake makes a great beachhead.
It all boils down to this: During XB or artillery rush, anything that shaves turns off a victory is extremely valuable because it gives you extra turns before the AI researches a better military tech. Denmark's ability to blow past choke points can and often does shave many turns off a typical Pangaea if used right. This is ultimately why I rate them so highly for conquest. I'd still put Darius higher because Persia, if properly used, can clear a Pangaea *insanely* fast, and I'd put Zulu higher because Impi are just broken. Arabia and the Mongols are unquestionably the best two civs. But Denmark is IMHO a top-ten conquest civ. If Optics wasn't a significant tech detour, I'd rank them higher. And, on any difficulty but Deity, the slower AI tech rate makes Denmark even stronger. The true advantage of XBs eventually becomes a) Logistics, because a horde of XBs can nuke advanced units, and b) Range, because they don't get decimated by advanced era city defenses. This advantage is much less on Immortal or below, where the AI has a smaller military and lower tech rate.
I'll post some example screenshots from a Pangaea Deity run, demonstrating why I love Denmark, when I have time. Unfortunately, my playtime is limited for now...
