The simple way to avoid rushing and such a strategies is to change campaighn objectives, first of all - remove hold 15 or 45 settlements objective. Also you must hold all settlements you started with, add to this some building objective, like " build Sistine chapel " for France or " discover first New World " for Spain ,etc..
I really CAN enjoy vanilla MTW2 if i play very peaceful way in game. For example, playing as Scotland i made marriage alliance with england on first turn, and got attacked by them only on turn 103. I always keeping my papal standing not lower than my enemy have. I try to get my reputation as high as possible. I attacking only if i know that some religious buildings will be built in next turn. I totally ignore game objectives, playing only for fun. Now is turn 200 and i hold only 12 provinces in long campaighn, but 2 from them are in Carribean and i gonna fight Aztecs. Played all other factions before ( except Danes and Byz ), everytime i started new game , i tried to reach objectives without blitzing in relaxing way, and, to be honest, everytime i stopped to play near turn 160-180, just after i got almost all high tech buildings and troops enought to raise whole world, i saved game under faction name and never returned to it. But now, playing as a Scotland, i enjoing every short ( if compare to factions i played before ) turn, and even dont want to stop.
And i always like peaceful decisions, thats why i like option to build rocket in Civilisation games, and thats why it always keep me from blitz and exploit decisions.