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I think my main problem in Civilization V is that I'm not very disciplined with my city specialization and tend to want to build unnecessary buildings in "specialized" cities.
There are several types of specialized cities: Capitol, Science, Military/Production, Financial, Great People, Cultural and Hybrids. I would like to know what buildings are considered ideal, nice-to-have and counterproductive in each type of specialization.
Thoughts?
With most regular buildings it's pretty obvious what their role is, and building a more advanced building requires the less advanced one, so you don't have much choice anyway. For example, it's obvious a Stock Exchange is important for a money-specializing city, but you can't have a Stock Exchange without a Bank and you can't have a Bank without a Market, etc. So as far as regular buildings are concerned, you just need to build the buildings in the chain you are specializing in.
However, some location- and resource-dependent buildings - like Windmill or Mint - can be of great help. It's a bit hard to recommend them, though, because they depend on the location of the city and what's around it. If you are able to, it's usually good to build them as soon as possible. In addition, it's important to take them into consideration when you choose where to build the city.
Most wonders have a global effect so it doesn't matter where you build them. The exceptions are the Colossus, of course, as well as wonders that do give a lot of something to the containing city (e.g. Himeji Castle with its +4 culture). There aren't a lot of these, though, and the effects aren't huge.
Unlike world wonders, national wonders do have city-specific effects, and they can be a real boon for specialized cities. After the latest patch national wonders like the National Treasury, National College and Ironworks provide a significant bonus to their respective attribute, so choosing carefully where to build them can have a significant result.
