more general tips that apply to both domination games and not! assuming you're playing vanilla anyway. even if you are playing vanilla, get InfoAddict and Enhanced UI, they don't change the AI or add anything new, they just make it easier to see what the game already tells you. plus, they don't disable achievements or anything.
social policies: tradition (all of it), patronage until renaissance, rationalism. there are some very specific cases where it's okay to diverge from this, like for poland it's totally cool to dip into liberty to get the free settler early on, but no matter what victory you want, you'll pretty much always use tradition/patronage/rationalism.
ideology: generally speaking, freedom is mathematically superior to order or autocracy even for domination victories, but you won't always have a choice. if there's someone very scary next door that went order, or if five goddamn civs went autocracy and taking freedom would send your happiness down the toilet, then do what you have to.
number of cities: varies. you usually want 3-5, do not spam cities everywhere. other than your core, you only want to build cities to get strategic resources that you really need. oil and uranium, sometimes coal. captured cities should almost always be burned unless they have a wonder you want, good resources, or a strategic location. if you're burning a city and can help it, delay capturing any more cities until the first one burns, there's a bug that will permanently slow down your culture otherwise.
nukes: use them. a lot. everyone is going to hate your fucking guts by the time you've conquered one or two civs, so you might as well throw around casual atrocities.
research priorities: science buildings and ranged units, in that order.
buildings: science buildings > food buildings > everything else. use your best discretion beyond that. remember, not every city needs every building.
great people: if you're going for a cultural victory, make great works. if not, pop your writers for culture and your artists for golden ages, turn the musicians into great works. settle your scientists to make academies until you can make public schools, then start hoarding them. once you can make research labs, wait 8 turns until after you've built one in every city, then bulb them to slingshot your tech forward. engineers make wonders, do whatever you want with merchants.
specialists: this is complicated as balls to get into. science specialists are always good if your city can manage them. don't use gold or production specialists, pretty much ever (unless you're venice, venice has a whooooole different rule set). writer/artist/musician specialists are very good to have filled, but lower priority than scientists.
citizen placement: even more complicated. unless you're playing very high levels, you can just let the AI handle this.
SA
social policies: tradition (all of it), patronage until renaissance, rationalism. there are some very specific cases where it's okay to diverge from this, like for poland it's totally cool to dip into liberty to get the free settler early on, but no matter what victory you want, you'll pretty much always use tradition/patronage/rationalism.
ideology: generally speaking, freedom is mathematically superior to order or autocracy even for domination victories, but you won't always have a choice. if there's someone very scary next door that went order, or if five goddamn civs went autocracy and taking freedom would send your happiness down the toilet, then do what you have to.
number of cities: varies. you usually want 3-5, do not spam cities everywhere. other than your core, you only want to build cities to get strategic resources that you really need. oil and uranium, sometimes coal. captured cities should almost always be burned unless they have a wonder you want, good resources, or a strategic location. if you're burning a city and can help it, delay capturing any more cities until the first one burns, there's a bug that will permanently slow down your culture otherwise.
nukes: use them. a lot. everyone is going to hate your fucking guts by the time you've conquered one or two civs, so you might as well throw around casual atrocities.
research priorities: science buildings and ranged units, in that order.
buildings: science buildings > food buildings > everything else. use your best discretion beyond that. remember, not every city needs every building.
great people: if you're going for a cultural victory, make great works. if not, pop your writers for culture and your artists for golden ages, turn the musicians into great works. settle your scientists to make academies until you can make public schools, then start hoarding them. once you can make research labs, wait 8 turns until after you've built one in every city, then bulb them to slingshot your tech forward. engineers make wonders, do whatever you want with merchants.
specialists: this is complicated as balls to get into. science specialists are always good if your city can manage them. don't use gold or production specialists, pretty much ever (unless you're venice, venice has a whooooole different rule set). writer/artist/musician specialists are very good to have filled, but lower priority than scientists.
citizen placement: even more complicated. unless you're playing very high levels, you can just let the AI handle this.