Far too confusing for me.
Hitting seems like a good idea with all his blots lying around, but 8/4*/3 seems to leave us with nothing left for the next throw. And also leave us with two guys waiting to be hit. I prefer 8/4* 8/7 as it gives us more builders, but also doesn't feel right for reasons I can't explain. Hitting also stops him making our 4 point.
Despite all those reasons for hitting I think I would play 18/13. We're quite far ahead in the race and if we don't get hit we may be better distributed to come in.