I have a vague memory of once reading a thread illustrating a game where the player expanded to dominate a map using solely peaceful means, with a lot of city flipping through culture. There may have been significant use of Creative to quickly grow a few cities into blocking other civ's expansion, and the player never opened borders, the more to prevent other civ's expansions.

I may, of course, be misremembering details; it might not have been entirely peaceful, for example.

Does anyone remember where to find this thread? I'd like to reread it, partly for entertainment but mostly for learning.

Look in the sample game directory :)

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=260470

The game that Juju linked is neither peaceful nor domination, though it is extremely impressive and well worth reading.

This may be what you're after:

http://www.garath.net/Sullla/pahatty_1.html

An Always Peace domination win from the daddy himself. It includes links to a couple of earlier examples of the same thing. :)

Thanks! P-A Hatty (Sulla's game) is indeed the one I was (mis-)remembering! The one Juju pointed to looks interesting too.