The previous dotmap plan was before we knew very much of the map. The corn just below the gold feels like a compelling argument to split it into two cities. Corn support for the gold and fish/clams city for Great people production.
Or better yet have the gold city between corn and pig. See below. Then we can still have the cities 1 and 2 (with 2 food resources each) for great scientist production.
OK, your city n°3 is great.
So I suggest moving my gold fish city 1NW, making it unnecessary to have any culture before working the fish
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I think your city n°3 is too good to be n°3. It must be number 2!
All the gold mines are within the first ring, making it possible to build "remote gold fish" without any culture
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That would be a huge start!
We're not philo we're financial, so let's focus on commerce.
But when our cities will grow, those 3 will be able to run scientists indeed with all this food!
about the past
I did consider the idea of growing to 4, but I thought we all agreed to switch to the worker immediately to get copper online asap. Growing first would have taken another 8 turns as there was no food stored. That is what I proposed before playing.
It's too late, what is done is done.
We need the wb still for exploration and this could have been done in the 8 growing turns.
To continue to grow we should wait until the corn farm is ready. Then stop the settler, switch to axe and grow (in 5-6 turns) before completing the settler.
I'm unsure. We can start building units now, let's do it. The corn and the pig will allow us to grow fast, and will also allow us to build a settler fast!
At size 4, we would work
- pastured pigs
- clams
- farmed corn
- copper mine
= worker/settler factory.
Of course, if we can have a settler posted at your city n°3 spot early, we could tech a lot faster...
I still think that 1 axe now is needed, then a settler while working high food tiles + whipping it (even for 1 pop) will come out soon enough = before our worker is done pasturing /roading the pigs.
An idea on moving the settler (although a little risky) is to bring Rupert back and use him to scout for wild animals. Once the city is placed it will be save, from animals as they dont enter borders, until the barbarians appear. Rupert is pretty good defense against animals (+130% in forests). Axes will be ready soon after for real defense. City two can immediately use the pig to grow fast and whip more units.
if the team decides on settler first, it's a good move.
Just remember that the guy isn't fogbusting right now = there will be barbs around at the time he comes home.
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what about if stuge plays next (if available) then Cam over weekend and you play the set after Cam (so you can whip away the population he's carefully nurtured 
