I would agree that 6 nations is too few and that there are now 3-4 nations too weak to really affect the outcome but too strong to actually be killed off (due to teams) but if 4 of us went ai it would really affect the enjoyment for the rest of the players.
You should at least wait until you get that 1 VP, AI would just send that army in almost random direction.
How many people are interested in continuing the game at all? I certainly do not want to let Pythium win. I could maybe agree on that 20-30 turns ago when I was extremely bored. But I couldn't find a sub so I continued.
Niarg:
"The province is free from hostile military units. The army is besieging a Fortified City."