I love the Civilization series... and yet, I suck at it.

[CitizenCain]

here is the thing on wonders.... why build em?

you can not build them, and in those 40 turns or so, build 4-5 settlers and expand your culture and military prowless, thus being able to take the cities that build the wonder you wanted.

steal wonders over building any day.

and on higher levels you will be lucky to build a wonder before an AI

See, now that all depends. I like the production route to Civ Victory, so I use FDR. and this 40 turn to wonder thing you speak of... crazy talk. The game I just started, I was able to complete Stonehenge in 15 turns, as the 6th thing my capital city built - warrior, warrior, worker, granary settler, Stonehengde. Next, I'll pump out a barracks, a couple chariots and another couple workers followed by a nother couple settlers

Granted, I had a better than average starting spot (but not *that* great) and access to stone early, but doing this now means that every new city I build in the next maybe 150 turns or so will get the +1 culture per turn bonus, meaning I don't need to build a city improvement to make use of all that 2x2 cross a city can work, I'll have a great prophet (and, therefore, my religion's wonder building) around 1500 B.C., and if I'm feeling really lucky, I might try to grab the Pyramids for an awesome civic and medieval era-sized cities in the classical era.

All of this is worth much more than 4 or 5 settlers (well, in this example, I probably could have churned out almost 2 settlers in the same time) that if used at this point in the game would cripple my economy anyway. And later in the game, around about 600-700AD, when I've expanded as far as the land mass and AI empires will let me, I'd much rather have a Wonder than 5 settlers, since the 5 settler won't have anywhere to go anyway. And if I go the peaceful route (which I probably will once I own my whole continent), wonders will give my productive powers something to do other than build up a massive invasion force for an expensive war that probably won't do my empire that much good on a continent at least 4 turns away anyway.

(This is one level above Noble, but still, wonders can be part of a good strategy - it's all about recognizing when you actually have a viable oppurtinity to get one, and when the reward outwieghts the cost and risk.)