lurker's comment: Of course, that whale's out of reach until you get Literature. Unless Bede would like to build a temple for the culture expansion.Seriously though, 1S of the cow is ultimately where you want that city.
Trying to bait TGOM are you?
lurker's comment: The only problem I've encountered in going for CxxC placement is that your core may ultimately be hampered in getting up to 100spt in each city. In good terrain I can still manage it, but sometimes not until manufacturing plants make their appearance. I would think it more important to get every usable tile working ASAP. Having space to become a metropolis is not a concern for most of the game.
The AI almost always goes for CxxxC placement or even more spread out than that. Rule of thumb -- if the AI does it, it's usually better to do the opposite.
SimpleMonkey has it right. What we have right now is a need to get powerful fields in use to overcome the lack of resources. And growing past pop12 is almost an objective to be avoided. That 100spt is nice but not necessary at Emperor and can get real costly in terms of keeping the people smiling.

Anyway, have fun on vacation.


