[dogscoff]

In the unmodded game, the best single player set up is a small or medium quadrant (NOT ancient quadrant) with high AI bonus and high difficulty. Populate the map with about a dozen aggressive TDM computer players - Rage, Krill, Xichung, Aquileian, Vikings, Pyrochette should do for a start - and then dive in.
Good luck. When the AIs hand you the shredded remains of your backside, try again on low or medium bonus =-)

If you want a modded single player game, go for Proportions or Devnullmod. My favourite setup is Proportions with large quadrant (255 systems), not all warp points connected and lots of difficult AIs on medium or high bonus. It will be a long, slow game but I promise it will be truly epic.