I want to play the Earth map with 18 civilizations as Japan, but I can't seem to figure out what would be a good way with placing my cities. I moved my settler 1 North-East to get a whole bunch of resources in the fat cross, but I'm unsure if that was the best move... Any tips?

how about a screenshot?

1 Southwest is much better, because of the extra hills.

Oh, okay. Thank you.