Portugal, Small Continents, Standard Size, Prince...
Started on an island by myself (and Cahokia, I guess - they were in the middle of the snow, so whatever) - but near me there was a small continent with America, Brazil and India. I settled three cities on my island, and one in their continent to serve as a center of trade.
Once reaching the Renascence I started having SO MUCH MONEY thanks to my Naus I simply did not know what to do with it!
I also found Spain (right next to Madrid was giving me +331
and +25 XP with my Naus!
), Venice (that stole two of my City-State Allies
), The Celts (who died relatively soon) and The Inca (who were a pain all game). While "my" continent was completely peaceful, theirs was on constant war!
Anyway, I founded the World Congress, and pretty much controlled the entire world by that point because I had the money!
Ended up winning Diplomatic Victory - it was a lot of fun!
Bribing every one to do what I want is more fun than it should be!