I'd have to say IGC is the best...
I have a Knights IGC game in progress - currently it's 1702 and I control Rhodes, Malta, the entire African northeast from Kabylia to Massawa, Afars, Ogaden, Somalia, Arabia down to Mekkah and Damman, and my eastern border encloses Basrah, Iraq, Kirkuk, and Kars, with my northern border running through Kars, Kurdistan, Armenia, Nuyssaybin, Aleppo and Adana.
Oh yes, then there's my three colonies - Dakar, Chesapeake and Roanoke. Two of which are already cities. (The colonists are being supplied by shipyards, which I built in Alexandria and Nile.) My annual income is about 350d - and my research (monthly) income about 100, mainly due to a 75% control of the 800d trade in Alexandria.
And then there's the time I had the Free Netherlands controlling a 100% monopoly of a 2250d COT in Jakarta from 1570-1640 (due to limited maps and my trade embargoing everyone who did have maps for it). I think I had level 10 trade tech by 1605, and I had all 8 of the Dutch-revolt provinces by this time as well. Of course - the hardest part was building the colony in jakarta in the first place!