It looks to me, that the starting map (at least on easy difficulty) always looks the same. On this map, when you want to place a second third town you basically have only a single place for it - at the centre of the map. In the tutorial I had around a dozen towns and each new town placed was not really a choice. In many cases the would be only one location highlighted green sometimes two or three.
My question to you, players, do you find that the current mechanic is flexible enough? How do you usually place your towns?