Anyone else thinks the game actually got harder with friendly AI?

[Blitz Spearman]

My first BNW game was a walk in the park with a smooth science victory in emperor. Then I thought that I would go back to immortal, where I usually play and not-so-usually win. But after 2 games being very tempted to take advantage of the end of the gratuitous early game DoWs to sandbox in my corner, I just got painfully remembered that it is completely impossible to outrun the AI in tech without some... intervention. This was already the case in G&K, but seems like it is even more true in BNW, with the AI favoring way more wonders and growth instead of wasting resources in suicidal spearman armies.

 

[Magic of Friend]

Its impossible to beat the A.I. in a strait up science race on immortal difficulty because they start 3 techs ahead of you, and get a huge boost to research and production. Iv found it to be a lot easyer to win in BNW because if the A.I. is ahead of you, just build 5 units, march them to the capital and take it over. Because the A.I. skimps on military they never have anything to defend. The sad thing about BNW is that it actually encourages you to be the insane warmongering A.I. from G&K.