City planning in Civ4

[Matrix]

This is not what it sounds (the planning of one city in particular), but the planning of city locations.

I'm currently playing in a game against my brother and a fellow student of mine (NHL), but I'm having great difficulty ascertaining where to build my future cities. Some spots are obvious, but for the rest.

So I offer you four options. Option #2 is the only one with full coverage of the land, but requires an extra city, plus they will also cover quite a lot of useless desert. So which one's best in your opinion? Option #4 also covers all resources within city radii, plus that I will have a channel city in the northwest (if I make it before Mali does), but I won't have a good eastern coastal city. So what would you suggest?

Option #1:
http://www.straland.com/images/cdz/Threesome01.jpg

Option #2:
http://www.straland.com/images/cdz/Threesome02.jpg

Option #3:
http://www.straland.com/images/cdz/Threesome03.jpg

Option #4:
http://www.straland.com/images/cdz/Threesome04.jpg

[BCLG100]

For some reason option number 3 does not come up when i click on the thread :S

You seem to be very worried by city overlap in all of them pictures, i wouldnt worry about it so much, one thing i can think of off the top of my head is that little peninsula just north of you.

You can settle one city just south east of the fish grabbing copper and 2 gold within one border exp. with the fish have a wb from the capital and whip a lib and you've already got a very good second city. Whilst you can have a second city on that peninsula alone just north of the fish, it can use the hill from your second city for growth whilst also having the fish for whipping, if you grabbed the colossus would be a very good city.

With that amount of desert id try and settle directly onto it as much as possible. i.e. 2 south of the corn, 2 north 1 east of the pig. For all i know though- all of that could be on option 3 :D