AI nation skills

[Taqwus]

It's possible to handicap things by adjusting nations' starting troops or sites, or doing things like giving them modded immobile monsters which serve as gem generators or so forth.

Modding an AI's nation-specific commanders to all have a supply bonus would go a long way to preventing mass starvation without freeing the human player from the same constraints. Giving a research bonus to its mages might also help.

You can't block it from going Turmoil/Death/Misfortune on a large map without actually setting up the sides, but the Misfortune could be ameliorated by fortune-teller abilities.