One of the strongest cultural units in C2C is the Toltec Coyote Runner, which is insanely fast (2I know it's been mentioned before, but a culture rebalance is the first thing that comes to mind. I never have a reason to pick any civ outside of the European ones ngl.
and ignores terrain) and powerful (7
), without having to rely on a mount (and two different "heals as" types). And for Toltec culture you only need stone in the city's vicinity.