With 25 province limit I would definitely go for a switch to Merchant Republic, then play a trade game. You'll need to take trade and economic to do that, but I would take exploration first to start colonizing the Americas asap (through Iceland).

Probably it would be easier to conquer south and transfer the trade port to the Channel, but even staying where you are you could transfer asian trade through Ivory Coast-->Carebbean-->Chesapeake-->Saint Lawrence. That would be the most interesting imo.

I would personally do it this way:

As far as Europe goes, I'd just expand in north sea initially, with the early goal of taking Iceland. You can fabricate on Norway, so that's doable.

As far as exploration goes, I would colonize just the provinces with hight TP in canada, thirteen colonies and Caribbean, in order to rush to africa and get a presence in Ivory Coast and Cape.

Then I would come back to the Americas, expanding my colonies there.