Success! (56k warning on my AAR thread, 500 or so images):

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=97845

This is what a free world (MTWII world anyway) looks like:



This is quite a fun and challenging type of game, and I recommend it to anyone looking to stretch their enjoyment of vanilla. Plan well for the Hordes, or you'll get caught short. It's much better to send your armies east aboard ship, as I quickly discovered, and the Aztecs are such a joke you really only need to send one full cavalry stack over.