I think we could stretch and do both the plant towards Scooter and the uber-city, sending the settler from DR to the uber city and the settler from PC/KND to the Scooter location.
I do think we should revisit moving it to the hill though. It would make a big difference in the event Scooter attacks us, which I think is likely. My reason for this being that they will eventually seek to expand via conquest, and at that point will have the options of Mack/Plako/Nic/Ourselves. Nic and us are significantly more likely to be the target due to player skill. Of the two of us, the territory from us will be easier to integrate. With this in mind, I'm inclined to value a defensive plant over a slightly higher quality city. Moving onto the hill still is riverside for a dike It does get one less food resource (2 vs. 3), but we can even pick up the rice later with another city. Any city Nic or Scooter found for the rice will be swamped by our culture. I have not counted the tiles, but just spotting it doesn't look like the tile quality is dramatically lower, the biggest downside is having a few unlighthousable coasts.
Mack city is important but low priority, Mack will not race us to such an aggressive spot.
My bigger overall concern with settling forward is that we forego plants that get our snowball rolling faster (whales, etc - which I think is the most important thing at the moment. At the same time, waiting on the spot towards Scooter, for example, might mean its not there when we want do get around to it.
It's a fiendish tightrope that I'm not sure how to walk.
I do think we should revisit moving it to the hill though. It would make a big difference in the event Scooter attacks us, which I think is likely. My reason for this being that they will eventually seek to expand via conquest, and at that point will have the options of Mack/Plako/Nic/Ourselves. Nic and us are significantly more likely to be the target due to player skill. Of the two of us, the territory from us will be easier to integrate. With this in mind, I'm inclined to value a defensive plant over a slightly higher quality city. Moving onto the hill still is riverside for a dike It does get one less food resource (2 vs. 3), but we can even pick up the rice later with another city. Any city Nic or Scooter found for the rice will be swamped by our culture. I have not counted the tiles, but just spotting it doesn't look like the tile quality is dramatically lower, the biggest downside is having a few unlighthousable coasts.
Mack city is important but low priority, Mack will not race us to such an aggressive spot.
My bigger overall concern with settling forward is that we forego plants that get our snowball rolling faster (whales, etc - which I think is the most important thing at the moment. At the same time, waiting on the spot towards Scooter, for example, might mean its not there when we want do get around to it.
It's a fiendish tightrope that I'm not sure how to walk.