Bought it cheaply during the summer sale.

Tried the learn as you play tutorial, but I'll need to spend more time with it.

Tradition and Liberty are two very good social policies to invest in when starting out.  In tradition at least get Aristocracy (build wonders faster) and Legalism (provides monument in first 4 cities for free, so you don't have to build monuments in your first few cities (I usually build one in the capital first anyways for the early culture)).  Liberty is good to fill out completely considering you get a free great person of your choice (I usually get the engineer so I can hurry a wonder).  The other two favorite social policies I choose are Autocracy (for war) and Rationalism (for science and there is a happy bonus for universities, public schools, observatory).  I hardly choose patronage since I usually just kill the city states (although keeping some as allies is decent with their gifts).  I did go patronage once when I was Greece and I kept all the city states alive and my allies.  I wrecked shop that game.  Usually it is better to go commerce over patronage. Honor is good for war also.

I used to micro manage my cities more in Civ 3 but I sometimes still do in Civ 5 just not as much as I used to.  Sometimes it is good to put the focus on production in your cities if they are having a difficult time producing things.  Just depends on each cities situation (some might be better with food at certain points during it's growth).  I hardly use gold or science focus.  Sometimes I use gold if I am bleeding money from too many troops or whatever (but usually I don't have the biggest armies).  Most of the times I go for more advance troops so I have less troops than the AI but they are superior (with help of a technology lead). 

Time to expand usually depends on opportunity (spotting a Civ that is weak or behind in tech / old military units), and how well your empire is managed (mainly happiness).  Try to scope out new luxury resources and go for those cities if viable. 

The workshop's got this covered. RED WWII mod is amazing!

Here is a quick question for all you Civ players...

What do you think about the stack of doom? Do you believe they got rid of it right by only allowing one military unit per tile in Civ 5? I sort of miss the stack of doom but there really wasn't too much strategy involved in using them. 

My favorite use of stack of doom was Barbarossa Civ 3 user made scenario.  My friend and I (I believe this to be proper grammar even though I prefer saying my friend and me) played the Barbarossa Civ 3 scenario and we used stack of doom (mainly my friend since he was the Germans) and it was pure chaos.  It was pretty funny that I was drafting troops (another thing I miss from Civ 3) just to cover my roads / rails from his Luftwaffe .  Man that scenario was pretty freaking awesome...  Wish we finished the game but I believe I stopped the madness and admitted early defeat. 

I prefer the one unit per tile in CIV V. It's more strategic and it's more balanced, just like firaxis said. I always play on the biggest maps so there's plenty of space, but I imagine it can get a little crowded on the smaller maps. Overall combat still needs work, but it's a big improvement over CIV 4. I hope it's perfected in CIV 6.

What I hate most about Civ is building a troop for so many turns (I usually play normal - marathon) and then the troop dies in a few short turns (from barbarians).  The beginning can either set you up or completely fuck you. 

I am hoping the combat and AI is better in Civ 6 considering they haven't showed me good AI yet in Civ game.  I have been surprised by the AI but I believe they cheated and just knew my city or capital was unprotected purely because they were the all knowing computer and didn't have to see their field of vision to know what I had in my cities.  Either that or they talk to their Military Adviser 24/7 and know exactly what I am packing.  Basically, the computer knows when you are weak always and they usually always treat you like shit (example they offer shitty trades,  go from good allies / friends to enemies within a turn or two, listen to the other AI complain about you, etc). 

The diplomacy in Civ 5 is a joke.  I say fuck the computer AI always and I just trade my resources for some quick money.  Usually, I'll just offer it for some gold straight up even when I know I will attack them soon or they can go ahead and declare war on me because I'll stop giving them my resources yet still have their gold. 

I think it would of been better to either

A) Limit the number of stacks based on a size modifier.

B) Allow as many units as possible, but have a law of diminishing returns for having so many units in one square.  The first units to attack can't do as much damage because they don't have as much room and can't manuever as well.

I only played Civ 4 a decent amount on friend computer but didn't they introduce collateral damage on stacks?  Such as you bombard the tile with stack and they all get collateral damage.  Probably not the best way in addressing stacks but it might have discourage it a little.

Probably?

I dunno.  Couldn't get into Civ 4.

I hear the "Fall From Heaven 2" mod or somethign like that is great... not a big fantasy guy though so i haven't played it much.

Stack of Doom seemed to make more sense to me because when you are attacking in real life say from berlin to paris they are all coming from the same place and attacking the east side(mostly). No matter if the army is 10,000 or 100,000. Splitting the army is better for smaller skirmishes imo, not such a worldwide thing like Civ.