As I have recently come back to playing conquest games of RFC I thought I would list a few hints and tips to help anyone else see the cool video scene at the culmination of the game. For me there are three main conquest strategies, for early, middle and late game. An early conquest game revolves around killing all the old world cities before the Maya spawn in America, and had been done (not by me) with Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks and possibly others, see this thread for in depth guides and more general Conquest help (learnt it all from u AP n Blizzrd)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=284630&highlight=conquest+challenge
Though I don’t know if this has been redone with the new patch I’m sure some are still possible. However the games that interest me are the middle and late game conquests. I’ll go over the late game tips first.
First build <11 cities and focus on building up a tech lead, while trying to get any useful vassals. When you are satisfactorily advanced steamroller the world with your tanks/infantry/bombers/nukes as you see fit. As you cannot collapse in a golden age save all your great people, Taj Mahal’s or national golden age wonders till your conquest starts, then try and crush the world in as few turns as possible. If your golden age runs out gift cities to your next conquest to gain stability, and try and run war civics like nationhood and police state to improve war stability. The best civ for this strategy is Germany, and it is a good choice for your first conquest victory. If you build science in your production centres you should reach Industrialism quickly, and Panzers are the ideal quick conquest vehicle. Any other fast teching European country is also good for this method.
For a more interesting game I prefer a constant gradual world conquest, starting as soon as you can build siege weapons. If you are aiming for a middle game conquest victory you will probably not have advanced weapons, so you need to go for quantity. Ignore limiting yourself to 10 cities and damn the science penalties, capturing and then developing other civs’ production cities will keep your massive armies topped up. As you don’t have advanced civics or 300turn golden ages more attention has to be paid to stability levels, so the quicker you control 25-30 cities the sooner you can get stability boosts from liberating them. Remember that successful wars will also help stability, as long as you never stop! As your massive empire will stagnate your science it is better to capture vassals, preferably Europeans, to conduct your research and then steal the techs from them. If all your efforts are poured into espionage your tech costs are immediately halved by stationary spies. Remember if you are constantly expanding your empire your economy will keep growing too, with all the stability benefits, so don't rest on your laurels! Don't worry about collapses, just make sure when in danger that all your troops are in your capital or out campaigning, as anything in foreign lands will not revolt when your civ collapses, then jus go and recapture your old cities.
My favourite civ for this strategy used to be Persia, with cheap shock troops and a great strategic starting position China, India, Mesopotamia, Africa and Eastern Europe are all within easy reach. The UA also acts like occupation with a stability bonus upon city capture. If you can launch immediate conquests lots of the 3000BC civs are good for this strategy, and the Mausoleum of Massuleaus (sp?) and Stonehenge are MASSIVE helps in preparing for conquest victories. However a recent game with Babylon opened my eyes, if you can get past the starting position their UA is amazing for conquest, as captured civs can immediately become productive. Any revolts or collapses can also be put down in one turn! If playing as Babylonia get Music ASAP, as the newly conquered cities are gonna need quick culture hits.