Please Help A Newbie!

[happyclappy]

Whenever I start a game on Warlord setting I start the game off well (or so I think!)
However, a while into the game, my opponents seem to have many more cities than me and seem to take a lot less time than me to build Wonders. If I take time to build settlers or workers than this greatly increases the time it takes me to build basic structures, let alone Wonders!
Please could someone give me some good strategies to help me off to a better start!

 

[eyrei]

Mine grasslands until you get out of despontism. Irrigation only helps special tiles under despotism, so you still only get 2 food from a grassland tile. If you mine it you get 2 food plus 1 or 2 shields. That should help you build wonders faster. That is how the AI does it.

 

[Polonius]

There's a variety of ideas that might help on this thread.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11753