Making Single Player more Exciting

[NKIcan]

Ok so I've been at this awhile now, and while I am immensely enjoying the game and the Multiplayer aspect, sometimes I just want to have a nice game at my own pace that I can pick up and put down whenever I choose.

In other words, I want to play against the AI. Only problem is, that the AI is rarely any sort of challenge. Ive tried handicapping myself to some extent, and that works to make it more challenging but not to make the AI less predictable.

So what do you all do to a) make the AI more entertaining and more of a challenge and b) to keep from trouncing the AI through them having stupid scales/gods?

All hints welcome