ORIGINAL: treespider
Yes Computer v Computer is possible.
The reason regional control is no longer an option is that the AI is built upon a number of scripts...somewhere over 1000 separte ones ( I may be low on this number).
Some of these scripts straddle multiple regions.
And some scripts get activated depending on the players actions and other stimulus in other regions.
It would have been too difficult to try and develop a system that told only certain scripts to function depending on which map regions a player wanted to control. This would likely have involved developing separate scripts for every possible combination of regional selection by the player... this would have caused AE to be released sometime next century.
That makes sense. But, technically speaking, somebody with no life and a LOT of spare time on their hands could develop an entire set of purely regional scripts. Or at least review all the existing ones and edit those that impinge on the desired human-only areas such as China or India. But even then you'd still need the interface that allows for assignment of regions to human-or-AI control. And I'm guessing that's been pulled?