Well an AI mod will change how the AIs behave... which may make them all somewhat the same... after all Xerxes behavior is just the AI for Xerxes.
I think you missunderstood, I decided to try the AI mod
because all the AIs seemed the same and all my games played out essentially the same
before i got the AI mod.
They were samey before and are still samey now, just a bit more challenging in that my nearest neighbour is more likely to DoW me in antiquity before I DoW them, whether they are military focused or not and the AI does seem to complete more legacy paths in antiquity and exploration.
Without the AI mod in some of my games I could in theory just end turn spam until time victory and win without doing anything as I was so far ahead in legacy points as the AI was so poor at getting legacy points.
You would think an AI would win by some other victory before that, which they had a chance before the culture victory rebalance, but after that patch i win modern era and check the legacy screen and the AI has zero factory points, maybe some have a couple of artifacts at best, occasionally AI may have taken a (single) city, usually only if i manage to suck them into a war against another AI and no triggers for science victory unless I have triggered them myself.
With AI mod it is a bit better but all my games are still the same.
Antiquity
Pick added sight/movement on scout momentoes so I can find, treasures, city states and good settling spots asap.
Pump out 2 cities ASAP to get to 3 city cap. Go war with nearest neighbour to fill out military legacy.
This usually gets you plenty of resources for economic legacy by default so mainly use merchants to build additional connections between settlements so my towns feed my cities better when I specialise them and I can get huge amounts of influence by choosing hub towns.
Spend all my influence on getting city states (science one first and pick tech for each city state then culture for the same) then get most of my tech/civics from city state befriending and then stealing tech/civics from AI once I have run out of city states. I always fill out the tree, often have extra codices and a couple of future tech/civics.
Exploration.
Pick increased sight and movement on water momentoes to find treasure and distant lands asap.
Buy some cogs while building settlers to rush some DL resources islands for economic victory and military path maybe DoW a distant lands civ late in the era to pop over the military cap. Taking island cities for easy wins as AI often doesn't even have ships never mind tries to use them effectively. As I ran out of stuff to build at end of antiquity I have huge land military so AI never DoWs me.
Turn all towns to hubs for massive influence gain and snag all the city states, again science first for free techs. Then steal techs and civics when out of city states.
Grab religion early. Make 3-4 missionaries just to convert city states which the AI never does so one charge each to get easy relics and then maybe a couple of my distant lands cities to cap off the military legacy. I usually build a couple extra as they can cross any borders and can't be attacked so perfect for exploring the inner parts of the new continent and finding more city states and generally revealing the map.
Focus on happiness to get lots of celebrations and social policy slots so you can use cards which buff yields and get 30-40 tiles with 40+ yields without even having to think about specialists.
I do usually have some specialist as I have run out of tiles to work.
Modern era
Take some combat momentoes as at least they will help with the military victory and nothing else really stands out as useful.
Grab as many city states as usual, partly because what else am I going to do with all this influence and stat boost do help as well as the odd artifact to make things a bit quicker.
Get explorer tech and buy a few which is now quite expensive but usually easy to afford and start grabbing artifacts.
Wait for ideology and start taking 10 cities...Usually just picking of island cities again, maybe go for some in the homelands if the AI decides to dogpile as it often does and seems programmed to do. Only seen the AI take an ideology once and that was around 2 turns before I won. If I am lucky I will actually have planes a few turns before I have my 10 cities so I can play with them. Often either finished before planes or not worth bothering.
Peace out as soon as I have the 10 cities and start the two projects.
Buy factories in all my cities and start slotting resources to get them ticking. Usually have enough around the I finished conquering so have a choice of victories.
Depending on luck/if I could be bothered sometimes have enough artifacts to start culture project also.
Start any projects while i Wizz the banker around the world and win by whichever finished quickest.
Game over, rinse and repeat.
Same game whichever civ I choose and whichever civ the AI has.