So I was playing my first full game (patch 'a') (died quickly to Orthus the first try), and I wanted to try out the Councils. Everyone else around me was evil, so I thought I'd be different and try for OverCouncil. I got the tech, switched to the civic, and used a GP to found the building. (I didn't make it my state religion.)
So I founded the OverCouncil.
Unfortunately, no one else joined with me. I was an OverCouncil of one. I'm not sure if there were any other Good or Neutral left - Ashen Veil had spread to all the Neutral I'd met, so they were evil now. There was still ~1/3 of the map I hadn't seen, but I'd kinda assumed there might be someone else neutral/good there. I guess not.
Anyway, I'm an OverCouncil of one. Which gave me great leeway in setting policy. I voted myself Liberty even though I didn't have the tech. I voted to end the war against me (didn't help much). At one point, my war was going poorly and the OverCouncil offered me help. So I donated two units to myself. Not sure where they came from. Didn't help much as the AC got huge and hell spread everywhere and I died a horrible fiery death.
I'm not sure how much of this is a bug. Founding the Council with only one member sounds a bit odd and potentially in error, but not necessarily impossible. Even voting myself advanced civics isn't necessarily a bug - I can argue that I should get some reward for the effort I put in to make the Council. But gifting units felt like cheating. There's no where for those units to come from except me.
--Tom