Nah, make it bigger.
- It gives us space to get the snowball up in, so we can claim more land in the mid game which looks to be our strongest part of the game.
- If we start next to the Illians (the only rush civ I'm not sure how to handle truth be told) they are farther away from us, and techs cost more - takes them longer to get the PoW out, so we in general just get more turns to prepare for them if they are hostile.
- Our world spell doesn't work without a barb leader, so we can't use it any way.
- More space for wolves to spawn in.