Popcorn indeed 
To summarize, we did two moves this turn that can be expected to backfire in mid-term, if not earlier:
1. We are about to settle contested territory in the middle of our enemies
2. We moved into OT4E territory with couple of immortals
Starting from point no.1: We are terribly behind due to recent warfare and not expecting to truly catch-up. With that introduction, playing safe will not lead anywhere and we might as well try to improve our position. Toku is settling a great city in the north so maybe we can settle a nice 2-food city in the south without true anger. That being said, "New Elite" will surely create tensions as well as its predecessor, but that's the deal we are taking because we only have one decent back-line city site left.
Re point no.2. I guess we are expecting that OT4E has somewhat decent reaction available to our threat, but let's see, maybe we managed to create real problems. After all, the mountain within his borders reveals all the potentially threatening tiles... except one. But hey, one tile is enough for a small stack of immortals.
In normal circumstances we would value good relationships with a competent neighbor, but it's a bit different here:
1. It seems we are stuck in the corner and Toku and OT4E are the players we need to beat in our duel-triangel-2v1-thing
2. Both of our neighbors have already shown middle-finger to us / attacked us / ruined our winning chances. I don't think they can feel too angry if we hit back. (totally still expecting a rage-war against us should we be successful, but hey who cares, that does not weaken the situation)
To summarize, we did two moves this turn that can be expected to backfire in mid-term, if not earlier:
1. We are about to settle contested territory in the middle of our enemies
2. We moved into OT4E territory with couple of immortals
Starting from point no.1: We are terribly behind due to recent warfare and not expecting to truly catch-up. With that introduction, playing safe will not lead anywhere and we might as well try to improve our position. Toku is settling a great city in the north so maybe we can settle a nice 2-food city in the south without true anger. That being said, "New Elite" will surely create tensions as well as its predecessor, but that's the deal we are taking because we only have one decent back-line city site left.
Re point no.2. I guess we are expecting that OT4E has somewhat decent reaction available to our threat, but let's see, maybe we managed to create real problems. After all, the mountain within his borders reveals all the potentially threatening tiles... except one. But hey, one tile is enough for a small stack of immortals.
In normal circumstances we would value good relationships with a competent neighbor, but it's a bit different here:
1. It seems we are stuck in the corner and Toku and OT4E are the players we need to beat in our duel-triangel-2v1-thing
2. Both of our neighbors have already shown middle-finger to us / attacked us / ruined our winning chances. I don't think they can feel too angry if we hit back. (totally still expecting a rage-war against us should we be successful, but hey who cares, that does not weaken the situation)