Is it ever possible that starting a city on a spot *other than the blue circles* is better than the blue circle AI recommended spots? Or are they no doubt *the* spots? Ive searched the forums but cant find this answer directly.

thanks

The Initial City Placement routine and the Blue Circle routine are actually two different routines. That said something like 98% of the time your settler will start on a blue circle.

The Blue circles aren't always the best cities. The AI doesn't take into account anything you could build in the future to make a city site better. I would say that for most any city other then the first, it's usually worth it to check out the lay of the land, and decide where to put cities on your own.

For the initial city, well, that's a whole other argument...

Sometimes where you start would make the best possible city in that location. But if you move a little it might be possible to have two good cities in that location instead of one great one and one crippled one. So even if it is the very best spot for a city, it might not be the best spot looking ahead.

Usually blue circles denote location that claims most resources in city radius. It doesn't (didn't?) take into account factors such as coastal location, rivers, non-resource tiles etc. so yes it is possible that blue circle is not always the best location for a city.