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Originally posted by baboon
For a military style game, this is what I do, in order, and why:
For a military style game, this is what I do, in order, and why:
1. Stonehenge. Because I don't want to build obelisks and because it's done within a few turns with a chop, even on Epic. I build it after I made my first settler.
That said, Stonehenge is a powerful wonder. But especially at higher levels it becomes less important, and there might be better choices in your game. Not going for Stonehenge is not a big deal, you can compensate easily.
2. Pyramids. Since I'm not founding an early religion, I need happiness. Health will be taken care of by granaries. Takes me 2 chops on Epic to help getting it. Still annoyingly long. I build it after my second settler.
If you compare the build cost of the pyramids to building a couple of warriors (which provide happiness under her. rule), or to go a bit less on production and more on commerce (so the beaker/gold cost of the slider at 10% is compensated because you generate more commerce in total), you will see that the pyramids, only for the happiness bonus, is not worth it at all. (rep also gives extra bpt for specialists, which is in many cases 'unbeatable'. Most people don't run enough specialists, though, and get low research bonusses from running rep.)
The pyramids give other options, though, which makes it much more powerful. E.g. religious civs can quickly turn to uni. suff., rush a couple of units/buildings, and turn back to rep. or her. rule.
3. Oracle. One chop and either I get it or I just miss it. It gets me to Code of Laws, with my religion and the important courthouses. If I miss it I'm pretty rich, so I raise the research to 100%. I build it right after the Pyramids.
So you're building this as 3rd wonder in your capital, after a worker and a settler? Possibly after a granary? What level is this? I build it after a settler and a lib, which on some starts is too late to beat the Monarch AIs...
Oracle is pretty important, and nearly invaluable for some of the farther techs (CS being the most talked-about example, but Theo or Philo are options too, as are some others). For the other ones like CoL, a lib + 2 scientists (+ academy with the GS they'll generate) will get there easily too. The Oracle is very nice, but quite easy to lose.
I'd like to build less wonders and more units, but I can't miss these. Stonehenge is very important for landgrabbing, oracle is too cheap and too good to miss. The only thing I would like not to build is Pyramids because it takes a long time and deforests my capital, but I don't think I can do without Representation.
- Without 3 wonders in your capital, you don't know what to build... so go for more units and settlers. The difference in hammers you don't spend on wonders is easily enough to conquer a couple of AI capitals.
- Without the need to chop, you keep forests around which give out their production over a long period of time. Hence, you don't get into production problems later on, once your wonders are built, you have no production left, and you want to build units.
- without your dependence on rep., using her. rule instead, you will have the incentive to build loads of units. Once you go to war, you use the slider for a couple of turns until you either secure more resources, or can return your units to your largest cities.
- without the need to have that extra amount of hammers for all those wonders, you can build commerce early. With more commerce, you're thinking long term: your tech pace will pick up, you'll have more money for upgrades, etc.
- by depending more on religion to expand than on Stonehenge, you'll gain more money. You will want to build missionaries early, which means you get the benefits early as well. In games with Stonehenge, it's very normal to find out some ~20 turns after reaching Calender that you're empire religion status is in a bad shape, and needs immediate action. This is also the time where you naturally want to focus on war: if you need to build missionaries then, your dirrectly hampering your ability for war.
BTW, Religion also provides happiness (important early on), and provides bonusses for certain civics (which become available around the same time as calender can be)
- By building all those wonders, it's normal that you will reach higher pop-levels in your capital, and in the few other cities you will have (as they need to build units, they don't build many settlers either). However, what is that extra pop giving you? Only more production, as you'll need that to finish the wonders.
This is a vicious circle: By not going for wonders, your capital doesn't have to grow. Thus, more (smaller) cities can be created. Thus, more commerce is generated (note that the 'extra' pop in wonder cities provide very little commerce at first: these are set to forests, maybe hills+farms. not cottages). If you don't have 2 big cities but have 5 smaller cities, you don't run into happiness/health problems either. Which means you don't need the wonders in the first place...
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By this, I don't want to say that your approach is wrong, on the contrary. CIV is IMHO in many cases a lot more fun to play when you go for vertical growth instead of horizontal growth. But there are certainly other options, and your 'must follow' path might be a bit narrow.
DeepO
At the beginning of the turn though, I'm given it as an option to build in some cities, and I'm even finding it as an option to build in some places, but not in a high production city.... why is that? 
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