I've been playing the beta of Fallen Enchantress and I like what I see so far. In my current game, I went from being the lowest ranked player with a single city, to being an imperial power slowly absorbing my neighbors one city at a time whenever they declare war on me. I love the mix of Alpha Centauri-esque unit creation and the champion system (bit bummed about the lack of family lines though...). I came onto to see what else was cooking for this game (and to perhaps figure out where the family tree went) and saw the big debate over one-tile cities.

From what I've read (an admittedly cursory glance), the main arguments on the forum have been split between the performance hit induced by multi-tile cities and that it's a unique touch for FE (the strategy exploits involved in snaking cities have not escaped my eye, but there are ways of fixing that. Plus I've abused it to no end in my current game and find it quite hilarious). If I may make a modest proposal along those lines: Allow players to create central settlements and then use a province and construction system along the lines of Total War: Shogun 2; while also using a system where the borders grow in a similar manner to Civ 5. Here's what I mean.

For clarity: I'll use tile when referring to a 2x2 square area, with square being the subdivision.

1. Provinces: When the sovereign first establishes a settlement, the borders should extend three tiles from the hub. The initial tile provides the material/grain amount for the hub.  I have no problem with way food and production are currently handled. Initial growth is fueled by refugees based on prestige, though I feel a settlement should eventually have a natural growth rate from its own population. Prestige should then be changed to the equivalent of culture in Civ 5 for expanding the reach of the hubs province. The requirement for arable land should stay to dissuade city spamming, and the following suggestions I would also further encourage the mega-city focus of the game.

2. Districts and Improvements: The hub itself can build generic improvements (basically a jack-of-all trades, master-of-none). These would be handled similar to building in Civilization. These should be significant enough to get a settlement to "level 2" let's say. In order to specialize a city, you would have to establish districts in the squares surrounding it. This works in a manner similar to building slots in Shogun 2. Each district would have a 3x3 tile placement ghost and would require a certain amount of a specific terrain type within its nine tile area. The district would provide a major passive bonus for the city and allow the city to build specialized buildings. Let's say we divide districts into general categories: Production, Population, Food, Money, Magic, Tech, ect. A Production district would be called "A Manufacturing District" and would require a certain amount of labor to establish and require a certain amount of flat terrain (at least four contiguous tiles of plains, let's say). It would then provide a number of material to the city equal to the district's level or the maximum number of material available in the tiles (whichever is lower). Each specialist building has a certain population amount associated with it. When you build a specialized building, a that amount of population is removed from the hub and siphoned off into the district (the population of the hub when then grow back). The district itself would then level up as well, with its level capped at that of the hub. The level of the district would merely provide bonuses such as adding a "construction slot" to the hub that would allow it to build two improvements at the same time, any level district would allow a city to build specialized buildings that have been unlocked through research and limited by the hub's level. A military district, for example, as it levels up would improve troops trained our of the city, give defensive bonuses, or allow an "extra training slot".

3. Fiefs: Essentially a way of upgrading outposts and similar in concept to the city states of Civ 5. An outpost would still require a pioneer, would still provide a 3x3 tile boost to your Empire's territory, but it would not increase any province's "land" (a particular tech may allow a hub to utilize outpost-claimed territory but only if the borders are contiguous). These areas could be made into fiefs by assigning a champion to the outpost. The way this would work is that you would move the champion to the outpost, assign it via a command underneath its status report on its main screen. There would then be a few options for how the fief could function divided along general categories similar to districts, but some would be limited based on the resources available to the feif: They could provide material, gold, grain, if the outpost's tile has any, a unit every so often on a rate based on the material available to the outpost's tile, mana if there's a shrine within the 2 tile area, ect. Once you choose the focus for the fief, the champion takes a few seasons to settle in and acts as a "guardian" for the fief in the same vein as city militia . The effectiveness of the fief is tied to the character's stats: Higher intelligence would mean more gold, research, mana, ect. The fief would also be associated with a particular province that could build improved resource extractors: Great Shrine, Inspiring Monument, Massive Mines, ect.

4. Other things: For the sake of combat, a district is considered an extension to the city, so it would have all the same types guardian units with the amount depending on its population. However, they would not be physically linked to the city in the same way that improvements are now, so there would be no teleporting several tiles. Each district would also have to be independently garrisoned. When you defeat a district's local defense you have the option of razing it, or damaging it (you clear out all of the population, thus disabling the buildings within the district). In order to reactivate the buildings you have to expend population from the main hub. If you capture the main hub, the population in all the city's districts is cut in half (A building with less than 100% of its requisite population only functions at 50%).

I have no experience in designing or programming games, I merely buy and play them. I'm hoping that this, or even bits of it, is feasible.