I'm not sure if anybody asked this, but is there a way to cut back on the micromanagement? Having to fiddle with one or two cities is cool, but having to fiddle with 20 each turn is no fun, especially since you may forget building or training an important item in a specific city, which is very annoying.
Is there an auto-build feature, or perhaps an auto-build/governor like in Sid Meier Alpha Centauri, for example, where you could give the city a building profile such as: exploring/conquest/economy etc? It might really help dealing with large amount of cities.