ETA on update -
I'll be going back home today. My flight will pull into Las Vegas in around 4 hours~
Until then, I'll have a load of fun.
Ghostwriter, to remain fair, is also able to sign 3 trade agreements this turn, so that he can have as many as anyone else.
(This game's precedent is making newer players as equal as possible... he already has a penalty of starting with 25 Industry, so no need to make it worse!)
As for military action:
I suspect Scotland wouldn't like the idea of Perfidious Albion using imperialism as a means of policy.
You'll need to use WMDs to capture the city-state(unless you're eager for huge losses), or rather, utterly destroy it. Likely to the chagrin of the world - genocide is generally frowned upon, especially against your own people.
===As a bonus, a new rule
You can move forts as you expand, but there's one catch - due to them being newly-built, you forfeit the fort's protections for that turn.
Forts overlap a la towers in the Great Wall of China. You can have ONE province between forts, and that will force enemy troops to funnel through the forts. For example - Rome and France have holes on their border, but all are the size of a single fort, keeping Rome from moving in.