The original "Predesigned Pretenders" was from Dominions (one, the original) and are at the bottom of this page which only exists in the WayBackMachine which stores long lost websites.
http://web.archive.org/web/200306031...com/stuff.html
My Dom2 version was a combo of premades for newbies (meant to be funny and beatable) and a tutorial:
"Eventually I should have a downloadable set of gods, a starter game with all the nations, and the same game at various stages (turn 10, turn 100). Plus of course an online explanation. The project so far is in Starter Files"
http://www.dom2minions.com/starter/
That dropped from lack of public interest, then there was the "Random Opponents" project.
http://www.dom2minions.com/Opponents.shtml
and then the "Semi-Random Maps" project
http://www.dom2minions.com/SemiRandom.shtml
among others at the
www.Dom2Minions.com site
An example of using map-commands to give the AIs gods can be found here.
http://www.dom2minions.com/WEvsTHEM.shtml
The Deadly Atlantis Rlyeh Ermor alliance (D.A.R.E.) had all 3 setup with extra castles, good chokepoints on the map, allied to each other, and with sibling pretenders (dragons). Also extra units and equipment.
Feel free to use any of them as partial ideas on how this might progress.
Gandalf Parker