best way to help the AI

[QuintusSertorius]

Thanks for your advices, will try them out.

Another usefull way of using the add_money command is to take money from a faction just by adding a negatve amount after the command. i often find this way more effective than bolster a weak faction with huge amounts of money.
normally i take 10000-15000 for 3-4 turns from a faction, that helps...

Later in the game you need to take a bit more than that to have an impact on some of the richer factions.