This is pretty awesome!
EDIT: I tried another game to get an earlier date. However focusing on this made me too vulnerable to the Aztecs, slowing down the tech rate.
So I just played on a huge map (Big and Small) as the Dutch on Emperor, trying to go for cultural. Neighbouring Spain vassalized the Aztecs and then declared war on me, but I had just started to produce a ton of cavalry. Eventually I managed to vassalize both Spain and the Aztecs and got up to 39 cities. I was able to get 5 religions and built their respective cathedrals. Unfortunately the Holy Romans (40 BUILT cities strong) invaded me on the home stretch. I tried to hold them off but it was useless. In WB I gave myself a bunch of nukes and decimated the massive stacks and biggest cities and even then Charlemagne refused to sue for peace lol.
How do you guys win on these maps? It seems like there is a lot more land, leading to freakishly huge numbers of cities. Conquest and domination would be out of the window for me.
EDIT: some screenshots
