[Tenryu]

I was thinking of doing a similar thing for a single player game geo.

I was going to set a map with a bunch of specific starting points for the players. Disable random players. Leave neutrals.

Create 'special' cultures for the little 'splinters' and the Empire.

The empire in particular I was going to give like a large minus to R&D.

Start the game and 'cheat up' the empire tech and spread them out to where I wanted them letting the little ones sit.

I figured a lot of the 'advantages' and handicaps can be set up in the cultures.txt and RacialTraits.txt by modifing these and after establishing the empire, turn on the AIs you want to play against, save the game and GO! I think it will work fine.