What part of the map do you prefer to land upon? Me, I prefer to land in Argentina. There, you can easily get tobacco and sugar, and set up cigar and rum factories. In addition, you're near the Incans, which means good trade. Only downside is you're near the natives in the Amazon, which means you can't expand very easily. I still end up with maybe a half-dozen decent starting spots. (After forcibly converting a village or two.
)
