What is a good number of cities to have around turn 100 (standard speed) when playing tall? What about when playing wide?
Also what is a good number of cities to end the game for both cases (sorry if this question is asked a lot)
Approximately:
the capital is the starting pool of the army, the place where most Wonders were built until the late game due to better production
2 ports - construction of ships, sea caravans. 1 port will be free if the other is blocked for some reason. Or 1 port on each side of a large island, the tip of the mainland. It is also desirable to set up Guilds of musicians, artists, and writers in ports and capital. A total of 3 guilds can be built. Coastal cities have a lot of food, but few tiles to work with. Sea caravans carry more food until late game. Food bonuses from city-states mostly go to the capital. And guilds provide very good border growth, which will be required to repair ships outside of cities. Also, Woders for 3-4 great works of art are best placed in ports.
1 city with good production for building an army - after an early game in this city, we put Heroic Epic (Morale Promotion + 10% CS) and free the capital from the construction of ground units. The capital will have something to do, at least the production of Envoys and Diplomats. Near the city, preferably several hills with mines, sawmills. Also horses. to build a stable and gain +33% cavalry production speed.
1-2 cities as a reserve, especially if there are aggressive neighbors nearby - the ability to quickly create an army, restore caravans. If for some reason one city is captured, then this will not be a disaster, as for an empire of 3-4 cities.
If possible, several cities should have access to a resource such as Stone so that you can send caravans with hammers around your empire in the early game to speed up the development of cities.
This is the core of the empire. For a wide game - annexing cities on other continents to build airports in the late game and transfer ground troops. Or coastal in the mid game to create many small mobile fleets and control the oceans.