I was in the same situation 6 months ago, but coming in from civ 4.
In the end I chose to make the expansion into other civs, rather than founding new cities. Target cities with luxuries you dont have, raze all cities other than capitals. This strategy is fairly straightforward up to Immortal on standard size. I usually found 1 city and capture the rest. With Attila I sometimes capture my second city (and build none of my own). Build courthouses in captured cities you will keep.
Also worth noting that once the army is established then the unhappiness penalties can be dealt with, unlike previous versions of civ.
From what I just learned there are 3 basic ways to domination in civ 4.
1. science is the usual way to most victory conditions and this includes domination. Build cities but concentrate on tech (seems to be the general consensus is to make for plastics) and then build an army that can conquer the world.
I watched most of filthy robot's civ 5 guides which provide an excellent description of the general strategy.
In the standard game you have to be ahead of the AI in tech.
2. A specific domination strategy for all games, as described by
@consentient in his excellent guide
[Please note this guide is still under construction, so while I value input, it might also be a good idea to wait and see if I add the thing that you think is missing
] Disclaimers:- 1. I am not the best warmonger on these forums. But I am someone who made a switch from mostly peaceful...
forums.civfanatics.com
3. win before the AI gets too far ahead. Fast domination.
For example, the Huns as per
@Cromagnus guide
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/attila-deity-domination-guide.519905/
This last guide in excellent introduction to rapid domination victories. Slow game speeds make for easier domination victories as the army can move across the board and not be obsolete when it gets there.
