I don't really think there are that many differences, other than a few specific scenarios that may be exclusive.... but I play on the IPad so here are some tips. First of all there are no real hard and fast rules on the best way to play since it depends upon who you are playing against, who you are using and what you are aiming for.
1)know your leaders strengths/weaknesses and have a clear plan before you start.
Example:if you are Zulu you must thrive on your early advantage of warriors able to move two spots rather than one and find the artifacts, villages and barbarians and leverage the small advantage into a big one. If you are Napoleon either go for temples/cathedral+ cultural power for great persons and converting other civilization cities, or aim to get the "cannon" as fast as you can and plan on a cannon attack to dominate. If you get 50% gold production aim for currency and banking (or 500 and 1000 gold for bonuses) and start to buy markets and banks and the things that double gold production.
2)Each city you build must also have a clear purpose. Position your population in the spots to accomplish this. So go to the city and adjust responsibilities. For example, the first city I usually aim for growth, that produces a large population and with republic I can crank out settlers like crazy. Thus I want granaries and things that increase food production and eventually an aqueduct and courthouse. Then I may build a city and focus on library and university and put it near water so I can crank out science and technologically advance quickly. Others you aim near water but get marketplace and bank in city and use it to get gold. And of course production is always important.
3) unless you get a clear technological advantage, it is tough to storm cities and take them over, don't spend a ton of time building troops and instead find a narrow part of the map where you can send all of the troops to defend
4)you might try focusing on growing and production and producing a large number of cities early and technological advancements and then using markets and banking and eventually economy grows to point where you can buy every upgrade in like 1 move. This is a much more gradual plan of attack but you can probably get libraries and universities in every city, and then eventually catch up and go way ahead of everyone in technology and then use that to command with military and dominate.
5)immediately following a significant military development that puts you ahead of opponents (such as knights, catepult, cannon, tanks, artillery) you may want to switch every city to produce it so you have at least 3, then form the 3 together to create army and immediately rush the nearest city and attack) also you may go for it all switching all science production to gold and just buying as many tanks as possible. Before hand you probably want to switch all science production to gold and use gold to produce lots of military units.
6)when planning an attack where opponent is ready for it (after war is declared) you must combine the power of a fully healed strongest defensive unit with the strongest attacker as many times the strong attacker will have weak defense and unless you have something with both (tank), usually you should just be patient enough to make sure that you don't lose your Cannon or whatever. Meanwhile build other units.
7) do not put your strong attacking units on your city,instead keep them one behind it so if your enemy captures you can immediately capture back rather than having an artillery or cannon Roy get destroyed for no reason. Occasionally you may want to bait other opponent strong offensive units near your strong attacker so you might send a sacrificial unit one in front baiting them in to kill it and charge so you can follow up by destroying them.
8)keep in mind that none of these rules of thumb are set in stone. Be flexible rather than methodical. It is better to recognize conditions have changed (such as your military advantage no longer exists) and be able to have a contingency plan developing in case your attack fails. For example, as I try to take domination victory with Cannons I notice potent just vs tarts putting up riflemen for defense. I either must be ready wi tanks real soon, or else I may want to start building marketplaces and banks and be ready to make price and start to develop that way if I need to.
9) early on race to get the artifacts as they can be a huge advantage.
10)if you want a quick cheat, just save the game a lot and load when things don't work out, you can use this to learn what works and what doesn't and figure out the best way to proceed.
I just won with Napoleon in Diety leveraging early growth and a small technological edge and charged with the cannon +2 advantage he has along with the follow up tank and following it with economic strength (to buy tanks in mot cities every move) and just plowed through.
