Some wonders listed as worthless, that I disagree with:
King Richard's--this actually has some good use. Like someone said, it helps you build other wonders fast, while using those caravans as they SHOULD be used--to establish trade routes! Build Shakespeare's in the same city, and you can have a good-sized offense in a mid-game democracy....
Shakespeare's--ESSENTIAL in a democracy; since no one is ever unhappy there, you can build or support most of your navy there so they can patrol the oceans without discontent; later tanks, howies, and other units that will often be outside cities attacking; bombers, helicopters, cruise missiles, nukes, those units that cause unhappiness no matter WHERE they are.... It's the essential loophole to the unit-unhappiness rule in democracy.... Build that, then a barracks (and later a port facility and airport) and go to town....
Pyramids--if anything, helps those new cities in late game get to size 3 quickly to start making babies! I can do without it, but things are easier throughout the game with it....
Adam Smith's--read that list of improvements above, multiply by number of cities you plan to have with all of these, and cha-ching! BIG savings every turn--enough to cut your taxes by at LEAST 10 percentage points, for higher luxuries (happiness) or science....
Suffrage--okay, I'm a late-game war guy. But this gem makes democracy easy in terms of controlling unit-unhappiness, especially if you didn't build Shake's.... With this, I don't have to rely 90% on the city with Shake's to support units. Coupled with Mike's Chapel, I can support four (or more) "unhappy" units from each city without even seeing red faces....
SETI--If you get computers early (and I often do in my putting-off of flight (to keep my colossus functioning)), this can make you sweep all the remaining techs fairly quickly, and go to space quickly. By the time I build it, the shield expense is absolutely NO object to me either....
Wonders that I agree are useless:
Eiffel Tower--the AI hates me no matter what, and that hate leads to irrational attacks that put them in the doghouse....
Oracle--too bad it doesn't last longer. Although I suppose in CivIII it may have a good cultural value to carry over after expiry, in CivII it always expires at the wrong time (giving you a bunch of disorder everywhere).
Manhattan--I like nuke-free games, and try to enforce this ban....
[This message has been edited by allan (edited September 01, 2001).]
