What is the best strategy for playing a domination game?

I find it incredibly hard, as the production of soldiers and war weariness really seems to get to my cities. I find myself building so much military that my science and commerce start to go down the tubes. The strange thing though, is that I look at the powergraph and Hannibal has twice my power, but less production than I do. This is just at Prince. I usually have no problem playing Prince if I play more peacefully. I've gone for a Farms + Caste System + whips strategy.

Thanks!

Moved to Strategy & Tips.

If you want advice for the specific game, you can attach a save which helps us to give feedback.

Pick the small ones first, Leave the big guy alone (in power chart)
Capitulate other civ real quick, so you can use your military advantages against the next target before they can have up-to-date unit.
Make the big guy fight someone else first, then out-tech him.
For what Hannibal doing.. he's probably go 0% science, and 100% army. So be patient, his advantages will disappear once you got infantry or riflemen.

Capitulate other civ real quick, so you can use your military advantages against the next target before they can have up-to-date unit.

Don't hastily capitulate, as doing so is usually binding for life. Make sure the guy doesn't have any land or wonders you want before doing so because if you capitulate him you likely won't get any of it ever.

You might have to lower your science slider during a war to pay for the soldiers... that's one of the side effects, sorry. If you have friendly rich neighbors, you can usually get some nice gold per turn from there to help cut your losses. AIs seem to be very eager to give away all their gold per turn for a single regular resource.

As for war weariness, it sucks as it forces you to stop... in the late game you can use a combinations of jails, mt. rushmore, and police state civic to get rid of it all together, but until then there isn't much you can do.

XD.. is it intentionally triple post!?

True. True. and True. can't leave some goodies resourceful cities.

Still, short wars are ultimate important to have dominations. After all, you only need 50%~60% land masses. Finish the game before you "need" to build tank*, is just as sweet as have all the wonders.
*ie before enemies have machine guns, that damn machine gun in a city is going to hail all your infantry advance to the victory. Fighting too many long war will definitely make your window of military advantages goes away, then will need to build a lots of brand new tank to deal with infantries... which the odd will be a lot worse than use infantry against rifleman.
And a vassel with lots of units to die for you instead of fighting against you ? sweeeeet.

And a vassel with lots of units to die for you instead of fighting against you ? sweeeeet.

Well it's very possible to get a friend to help fight for you without binding them with capitulation. Of course there's a risk that they won't but it's usually better because then you can betray them later, if you have to.

Bulb tech. Bribe people to attack hannibal. Backstab.

What is the best strategy for playing a domination game?

I find it incredibly hard, as the production of soldiers and war weariness really seems to get to my cities. I find myself building so much military that my science and commerce start to go down the tubes. The strange thing though, is that I look at the powergraph and Hannibal has twice my power, but less production than I do. This is just at Prince. I usually have no problem playing Prince if I play more peacefully. I've gone for a Farms + Caste System + whips strategy.

Thanks!

The powergraph can be very misleading. You need to be aware of what having twice your "power" means. Take a look at what makes up the power you and your opponent has in this artile: The inner workings of the Demo screen explained (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=163098). It shows that certain technologies (e.g. Horesback Riding = 10,000) and some wonders (e.g. Great Wall = 12,000) can greatly increase apparent power when compared with a swordsman at 3000. If he has lots those technologies and wonders and you don't that can be a lot of "power" but it's power that makes little real difference. Also Hannibal will tend to spread his power out and have lots of archers and other defenders in each of his cities and only a few of his troops in his mobile army. So when you attack you're concentrating a larger proportion of your real power against a small part of his inflated power. It's possible to attack an AI that has 3 times your power and win. So take a careful look at where he's getting his power from, if he has a stack of 10 numidians and 10 catapults it's quite a different proposition from 5 wonders and 3 technologies you don't have.

Raising enough troops is fairly easy if you use farms and whipping. WW is the main limitation on the ability to make effective war. To reduce WW try to make your wars short and manageable. Try alternating your targets. WW recovers much faster during peacetime. Also WW is only accumulated when fighting in enemy culture or neutral culture, if you can destroy his troops on your own territory you don't get any WW. So be careful to choose where you fight his main army, preferably not on his territory.

If you have say 3 neighbours and have built up a nice army, declare war on one of them. Just take 3 of his cities, make peace for a technology or plenty of gold, and then move you army to attack another neighbour. The WW will not have built up very high and it will drop quite fast. After the second war bring the army back and attack the first opponent again and take another 3 cities or if he's small enough wipe him out.

This approach has diplomatic consequences so you need to be aware of who is friendly or pleased with who when choosing targets. You get a -3 diplomatic modifier for each time you attack and another -1 if you attack any other civ that is above cautious. But if you're going to wipe out a civ there's no need to worry about what he thinks about you long term ;) If you intend to vassalise him or want to trade with him then you need to be more careful but adopting his religion can be useful and liberating one of his cities makes him like you (just take an extra city and gift it back).

Good luck.

There's been some good advice so far, but not too much on the economics of Civ IV warfare. Let me throw in my 2 cents worth.

As Joshua368 said, you will have to lower your science slider during a war. First of all, all those units incur maintenance costs, and those are higher when they're out of your cultural boundaries. In addition, the new cities have maintenance costs. Wars cost money. You will need to find ways to balance this out. Read on...
The biggest effect of the economic hit from war is your research. Fortunately, there are alternatives. Research Writing, build libraries, and run science specialists. In the early game, a couple of scientists and a library will help research tremendously, and without costing you much at all.
Currency is very helpful. It will increase trade route income, it will allow you to trade resources and techs for cash, you can even ask pleased/friendly civs for a gift and shake down all others for tribute. Markets in commerce-rich cities should be a priority. And Currency is a prerequisite for the next crucial tech for early warmongering...
To reduce the new cities' maintenance, make courthouses a priority--and, therefore, Code of Laws. Once you extend your empire and have the prerequisite number of courthouses built, put the Forbidden Palace somewhere. Don't make the mistake of leaving it for some ideal location later in the game; by then you'll be ready to switch to State Property, and the FP has no effect when you run that civic.
Pick and choose which cities you want to keep and which ones to raze. Keepers: cities with wonders, holy cities (especially with shrines), cities with valuable resources (especially gems, gold, or silver, as working those tiles will cover the city's maintenance costs).
Don't be afraid to pillage. The easy gold can be very helpful. However, consider carefully if you'll want those tile improvements left alone. If the city's a keeper, leave those improvements as they are; if you'll be razing it, pillage away.
The whip is your friend. Use Slavery not only to build troops, but also to hurry the infrastructure I just mentioned (libraries, courthouses, markets, etc.). Since cities' maintenance costs are partially based upon size, whipping also has the potential of saving you money, too.