I am currently playing a game where I removed myself from the equation and just watching the AI with the map revealed. I am looking to see if I can predict who will win based off starting locations, or if it comes down to differences in the AI personalities or something.

Okay. So far it seems like the starting location does play a part in the success of an empire, but not that big. I think that being sandwiched between two enemies is really bad and having territory on the edge of the map helps the AI stay powerful.

The only thing that really matters is how expansionist the AI is. Basically if the AI creates the most cities, it will be the most powerful and it will likely win the game. I thing being aggressive and building lots of armies also helps, but the AI sucks at using their armies effectively. It took the AI 100 turns to kill a player with only 1 city left.