What cities would need science buildings? and what cities would need gold buildings?
And what is the deal with liberalism? I understand that it give you a free tech, but going for it first seems to be gospel and I don't understand it, is there a particular tech im supposed to be slingshotting for?
It all depends so hopefully I can shed some light on the subject for ya since you seem to be a tad lost.
The liberalism race is a bench mark, more oR less, to determine if you are winning the game or not. If you win liberalism chances are you are in a position to win. As far as what tech to grab it all depends on how you want to win. It all depends on how much of a tech lead you have. An example of what a lot of people lib is nationalism. The reason why is you get a free shot at the taj mahal wonder before anyone else can get it (typically if you lib it, you will be the first to it, but not always the case on harder levels.) Also you could build a nice tech lead and Lib steel for cannons. Or if you know you are going to cuarisser (pardon spelling) you could lib military tradition. If you know you are in a very commerce strong situation you can lib democarcy and troll the AI with free speech and emancipation while going to democracy for the free hammer for towns. I've also seen people and by people I mean subzero Lib communism to get a beat on the kremlin for rush buying in democracy. Trust me, you'd much rather have the free tech then not, because at noble level there is no reason you should not win it if you have a decent grasp of basic game mechanics. And on higher levels, if you miss out on it, you would have to tech whatever tech you needed for victory ALL BY ITSELF which sucks. losing lib sucks and I hate it lol.
Someone mentioned watching you tube videos. I recommend watching themeinteam for his style of play translates very well for immortal and below.
As far as what cities need science buildings.. I play on immortal and I just recently won my first deity game domination, and I have found that the only buildings that need sceince buildings are your capital. If you have a strong buro capital that is all you need, however if you want to build oxford you will need universities in six cities. Oxford isn't always needed however, depending on several things, do you have stone?, are you industrious, what is the time line of when you need to attack? The hishest score on immortal I ever got is when i had six cities and never built a science building in any city except capital. But sometimes you want to work cottages in your capital and need a great scientist so you can build a library in a food heavy city and run specialists to make that happen for you.
This game isn't civ five. It is complex, amazing, and really makes you think in order to win.
Best advice to you, watch themeinteam on you tube he will break it down so you can understand, you will not be dissapointed I promise.
Oh, and to make the what cities need science buildings and what cities need gold buildings... If your city uses raw commerce IE gold from cottages, gold mines, foreign trade routes.. those cities need science AND gold modifiers, however markets are typically frowned upon unless you NEED the happiness boost because they are very hammer dependant and not worth the investment.
Here is something that also might be very helpfull and this is a list of the buildings every city NEEDS.
Every city should have at least the following, granary, lighthouse if you have fish food, forge, barracks (if you are planning on winning militarily,)and always ALWAYS build the AP religious buildings for the free hammers IE monastary and temple for the appropiate religion, theater (six if you can for the globe theater) and aquaduct in capital. Everything else is optional depending on how you roll IMO. Well in hindsight you should have a university in your capital as well but some people don't use their capital for commerce, which doesn't make sense to me but W/E lol.
Hope this helps!