Nickzilla
Chieftain
I'm looking at your (second) game, but firstly, a vague tip. Hit CTRL+R and CTRL+Y when founding cities to see resources and tile characteristics.
I posted a screen of an example of where I think a good place to put a city would be (the green square).
A poster earlier talked about cities being closer together to cut maintance costs a bit... this is what he meant I believe, rather than having your cities overlap.
This screen was taken just east of Berlin. A barbarian city was established just north of it the turn after, so that will need razing.
The spot for this city includes three hills for production, fresh water, forests and a coastal location. It even has rice and clams! This city would be used for lots of city specialists, or cottages on the floodplains, with just enough production to get the odd building out. The only problem I have is that the hills aren't plains hills, since they would make more hammers.
Munich isn't a completely lost cause. If you cut down the forests that are next to that eastern river, you can build farms to increase your population and use up all those hill tiles. Also, knock down the cottage just north of Munich and put down a workshop ASAP, since this is a city for production.
One city that is a lost cause however, is Frankfurt. Rubbish spot.
I'm not a big fan of Cologne either, but I understand why it was put there. I'd put down a lighthouse and work as many of the sea tiles as possible. Then when you get civil service make a link of farms from the fresh water to the grassland tile which is currently covered in forest to get the most out of that. Sadly, most of those tiles are worthless (especially the desert and the peak!) but you can get a decent mid-sized city out of it by working the most important surrounding tiles.
The second attachment (0001) is what I believe would be a better spot for Hamburg except I put the green square in the wrong place. It should be one tile south of that, where the hamlet is currently. You'd be able to take advantage of all the food resources that way, and you might have enough to put some workshops down on the plains tiles. It's not the best general spot for a city since it's missing proper production and fresh water, but I think putting it there would make the most of that spot.
The third attachment (0002) would probably be a better spot for Essen. You'd be able to take advantage of the two sugar and two banana resources, and you'd be on the coast as well, which is usually a good thing IMO. Sadly, not much in way of production here, so it's mainly another city for specialists.
The fourth and final attachment (0003) is where I would've put another city if Essen was a little further south as I suggested. Again, you'd be taking advantage of all the resources in the area. Dye, clams, cow and banana. A little more production here, but still not very much. You might want to put workshops where some of those jungle tiles are since this one would actually have a little production.
With me suggesting mostly coastal cities, the Collossus and Great Lighthouse wonders are really important to maximize output. Try your best to get them.
I posted a screen of an example of where I think a good place to put a city would be (the green square).
A poster earlier talked about cities being closer together to cut maintance costs a bit... this is what he meant I believe, rather than having your cities overlap.
This screen was taken just east of Berlin. A barbarian city was established just north of it the turn after, so that will need razing.
The spot for this city includes three hills for production, fresh water, forests and a coastal location. It even has rice and clams! This city would be used for lots of city specialists, or cottages on the floodplains, with just enough production to get the odd building out. The only problem I have is that the hills aren't plains hills, since they would make more hammers.
Munich isn't a completely lost cause. If you cut down the forests that are next to that eastern river, you can build farms to increase your population and use up all those hill tiles. Also, knock down the cottage just north of Munich and put down a workshop ASAP, since this is a city for production.
One city that is a lost cause however, is Frankfurt. Rubbish spot.

I'm not a big fan of Cologne either, but I understand why it was put there. I'd put down a lighthouse and work as many of the sea tiles as possible. Then when you get civil service make a link of farms from the fresh water to the grassland tile which is currently covered in forest to get the most out of that. Sadly, most of those tiles are worthless (especially the desert and the peak!) but you can get a decent mid-sized city out of it by working the most important surrounding tiles.
The second attachment (0001) is what I believe would be a better spot for Hamburg except I put the green square in the wrong place. It should be one tile south of that, where the hamlet is currently. You'd be able to take advantage of all the food resources that way, and you might have enough to put some workshops down on the plains tiles. It's not the best general spot for a city since it's missing proper production and fresh water, but I think putting it there would make the most of that spot.
The third attachment (0002) would probably be a better spot for Essen. You'd be able to take advantage of the two sugar and two banana resources, and you'd be on the coast as well, which is usually a good thing IMO. Sadly, not much in way of production here, so it's mainly another city for specialists.
The fourth and final attachment (0003) is where I would've put another city if Essen was a little further south as I suggested. Again, you'd be taking advantage of all the resources in the area. Dye, clams, cow and banana. A little more production here, but still not very much. You might want to put workshops where some of those jungle tiles are since this one would actually have a little production.
With me suggesting mostly coastal cities, the Collossus and Great Lighthouse wonders are really important to maximize output. Try your best to get them.