I played a quick test-game to 125, (that I may finish) and this combo is actually pretty interesting.
On Emperor someone else will likely build a wonder you'll want for a fast finish.. certainly GL is tricky at best. So if you try to start peaceful-ish (IE build cities, granaries, monuments, libraries) instead of going all-out units, by the time you conquer, you'll lose some of those wonders, (because you can't afford to annex) but with good play and a good start you can still (obviously) hit sub-t110 education.
On the other hand, if you go all-out military from the beginning, and prioritize Mathematics over Philosophy, and units over National College, you'll tech slowly, so it's kind of a self-fulfilling deal.. you end up *needing* to steal techs, and *maybe* it evens out, but here's the catch. This increases the luck required, because now you're relying on lucky tech steals, lucky timing of captures and so on. You're also hoping that the cities you capture early (IE close to your capital) have good wonders, good dirt, etc. Another big luck aspect is having a convenient CS tribute circuit.
In my test game, I got Archery from a ruin, got Currency as a stolen tech, and also got Drama & Poetry, which is about as lucky as you can hope to get, I think. Both of those are equivalent IMHO to winning the GL race. (Which I didn't even try for... a lucky thing, it went on like t32) But, I didn't end up with super-early Education (T111) because I had to build Courthouses to stay ahead of my happiness issues, and my growth was less than it would have been had I delayed my conquest. Decisions, decisions!
One advantage of playing peaceful until you *naturally* (timing-wise) tech Mathematics is that the AI's you first conquer are more likely to have techs/wonders you want, but unless you've been playing OCC up to this point, you likely can't afford to absorb the unhappiness of annexing those cities, unless you've been lucky with Mercantile CS quests.
In my test game I built zero settlers, went full Tradition, and went for the bonus to wonder construction before the free momuments and *intentionally* didn't ally cultural CS or build a monument until I'd captured 3 cities. This way I got 4 free monuments and 4 free aqueducts. (3 in annexed cities) I focused heavily on culture after that, resulting in ~T125 Secularism. That worked out well, because otherwise I would have had to build those monuments instead of courthouses... and finishing Tradition earlier without ~t95 Education would have likely delayed Secularism. But, hard to say.
Word of advice: In my experience, puppeted cities won't get monuments, but annexed ones will. You must annex them *prior to getting the policy*. You won't get a retroactive building when you annex. Oddly, puppeted cities *do* get aqueducts. Or maybe it's buggy... because it seems inconsistent? Either way, annexing ensures you get them.
So, all out conquest or science-first? This is a hard decision. Waiting until after you get your empire growing to start conquest means giving up a LOT of peace deal money & luxuries from the AI. So, I think if your game goes *perfectly*, it's faster to go all-out conquest and build at most one settler. But if *anything* goes wrong you'd have been better off with a traditional Diplo warlike approach (science = first priority, build 3-4 cities yourself, war = second priority)
This is certainly the easiest approach with Assyria. Even on Emperor, even late, he wades through opponents with those siege towers... so you *could* get away with starting the conquest after you plant expos. But, that way you surpass the AI in tech quickly, and get very few free beakers... and I hate not taking advantage of the UA.
There IS a path to super-early Education through conquest, but it's a tricky one at best. Maybe the trickiest thing to navigate, IMHO, is whether or not to take cities in peace deals, and who to attack first. By t80 in my test game no one had any techs I needed anymore. I'd been avoiding taking cities in peace deals so as to get more free techs, but clearly I should have started taking some in peace deals earlier.
If this were Deity, it would be different... Assyria's UA remains relevant MUCH longer. Interesting. Fun map.