OK, lets think about the Devious City (DC) plopping.
Tech for Religious VC not an issue... lets do Calandar and Astronomy at 0% research (about 9 turns total), and EP slider at 70% (or whatever max sustainable is) all on Hatty. If at war with Hatty later, spy revolts are really fast compared to treb seige.
Build more spies near our borders and near Kago. HMiss heading north (towards Persia) can reroute to GK if we get OB, back to the DC site if not. 3 Hmiss needed, and they need to be where they can get to HC and to MM. That's game over.
I think were up to about 350EP/t at that setting, and city revolt should cost guessing something around 1500EP in each city, -50% discount. So if all works out, it would take about 5t to accumulate the EP, and 5t to have the spy sit.
The EP on Liz can be used to flip her to Merc right now at 30% discount... then if there's enough left steal calander or something else. Then all spies to the Egypt cities that open that window of opportunity. At least two to each city, in case one fails.
Contingencies: HMiss should go with stack and settler to that spot. This city does not need to be Hindu, but you never know... if Inca culture covered that tile we could gift it. If the settling goes as plans, he'd be the first passenger on a whipped caravel. And one could check whether HC or MM would take the city as a gift... might solve half the problem, but best wait until the caravel is made.
After caravel loaded with HMiss, it might be possible to gift city to one and get OB from that then use the Hmiss/caravel to infect the other. (OB with one on team is OB with all).
If we can get to HC, we might need to do this again in the North to get to MM, but I doubt it.... looks clear of ice on the east coast. The caravel would be enough.
I suggest we start gifting some resources to HC and maybe MM as well... stone and marble are good, but have to cancel some cash deals that are ongoing.
I didn't upgrade the XBow to a gren yet, because doing so makes it impossible to upgrade to a rifle, but I think a gren is what we want. Fighting was over by the time I got MilSci anyhow. Upgrade now.
Another question... maybe we are being stupid here... how much EP on MM cities and HC cities do we need for the passive ability to see their city? I think its a lot less than what we need to flip 2 Egypt cities. So once we feel comfortable that we have plenty EP on Hatty, might be good to put it all on MM, and then all on HC, and see their cities. Faster than airships, for sure.
I think
Shaka will be the Primary Friendly Target. Say yes to all his demands except the ones which would end the game (switch religion, switch to free religion)... but do not say yes to things that will bug HC/MM until we've gotten OB there.
If he makes demands we can't accept, then we still have our
Secondary FT, Liz. In Merc, she will be up to +7, and with FR, she will go up to about +10. We can perhaps gift her back Agra and get another +2?
Did I mention that I was given the options of keeping or disbanding Agra? I kept it, obviously. Hope you guys are OK with that.
The Third FT is Cyrus, or GK. Won't do anything to actively anger them, but only rely on one of them for Friend if the demands/wars mess up out primary and secondary both... which is unlikely, but still likely enough to worry about.
One aside.... another way to get rid of the -2 close borders would be to assign Kago back to us in 2t. Not sure whate else we would do with that vote... maybe if Tokyo is back on the table that's better. Note, voting to force Liz to give us a city would cost us a -2 (you voted against us), so until her borders issues gets above -3, we don't gain much (trade a growing irritation for a decaying one of same present value). Better just to flip Kago with culture... hiring artists nearby might be enough.
I guess we don't close borders with Hatty because we'll want to shuttle HMisses there.
If we do get OB with HC/MM before the plan is executed, we will at least try in GK-land the teleportation to MM. If that works, we could decide whether the city settling or teleportation is more reliable way to do it.
Who's up? Trystero? Steelhorse? Someone else?
From now on, we should pause for AP assessment frequently... although the election probably doesn't need to be treated that way.
Don't give away stuff for diplo points if we already have max diplo for fair trading (+4). Maybe we'd get the "You shared your technology" bonus, but maybe not. We are waiting for Merc bonus to mature some more, OB bonus to mature some more, and teh gods of Hindu willing... Free Religion to eliminate the big minus diplo (as well as end the Bhudist love-fest). If that isn't enough, we will need to bribe our FT into attacking someone they don't like, and then DOW them ourselves. That will do it.
We whip an army, march to Satsuma, capture it, wait for it to come out of revolt, build a caravel (or two), and set sail. Too tight a schedule? Let's try to work it out.
Are we having fun yet or what! 
