Just finished my first win on immortal. 8 civs in total, pang, standard. I was Korea and had to squeeze in my four cities into a ridiculous amount of hexes (only about 50 land hexes that I could possibly get the entire game). I ended up turtling and was the clear tech leader most of the game. My strategy was to not annoy anyone, and just be the nice guy.
Well, didn't get DoWed once. There were a few plots, but nothing came from it. I bribed them to take each other out, yet I was always behind in everything except science and approval.
I did find it more difficult and suspenseful than on Emp, mainly due to the runaway being on the verge of a CV right up until the end. Still, because I couldn't find any iron, I only ever had 2 warriors, 3 Xbows and 2 CBs.
That is ridiculous! Come at me! I find it funny that I finished the game as the technological superpower, yet my army consisted of guys who hadn't even upgraded to spears.
Meanwhile all the other civs are roaming the continent with X-Com squads. This could have all been mitigated if I thought there was a chance that I would get DoWed.
Why does the AI only attack the weakest players UNLESS the human is the weakest player?
Edit: to be fair, there was one point during the atomic era when Rome was marching its army into my land during open boarders. I was at the end of the pangea, so I had to assume that they were going to attack. Bribed Russiea to DoW and that changed things.