[Gandalf Parker]

I know you said to not post but this thread might still be a good place to post the "how and why" stuff to keep it separate from the "MP game and join up" stuff.

What you are creating is referred to as a "scenario" game. Where there is a story and goal other than just king-of-the-hill player-vs-player.

Some things to consider..

You can zone the map to make things easier for the players to cooperate. Not scatter the AIs in with the players. Since the game numbers provinces from bottom to top, this is easiest if the AI has control of the top or the bottom of the map (or both). Then a script can be created to easily mark a large portion of the top or bottom as "no start" allowing the players to be randomly placed within the zone still left open.

Some scenarios Ive had are D.A.R.E. (Deadly Atlantis Rlyeh and Ermor alliance) where Ermor was majorly entrenched on a southern island with Atlantis and Rlyeh in oceans protecting it. Since Ermor as allied it would not attack Atlantis and Rlyeh and they would not attack each other. So the wter nations tried to expand, while Ermor sat and researched. The goal was to take out Ermor before it hit some critical spells.

In NaV I created super-allied nations which used each others units. And gave them directions of attack across the map. (the AI hates separated castles and will concentrate on connecting them)

Ive also done "Independents Uprising" , and "Mother Nature is Pissed" (2 Oceania and 3 Pangaea allied, "the various nations of Man have begun to destroy the planet, Beware of Global Swarming"), and a very simple one called WE-vs-THEM which split the map and gave half to the AIs. Also one called "We Have Created a Pantheon" (bunch of gods dividing up jobs such as god of the air, god of the earth, god of the dead) which used pretenders born of the same mother.

Giving the AI immobile pretenders also helps avoid some problems. Also boosting their resources, and boosting their research, can put them more on par with human players. I would put add resource boost sites on the AIs main castle (to nudge it to make more of its elite units) and magic boost sites on its secondary castle.