(I think it's definitely easier than in vanilla; in BNW AIs rarely go for rationalism; usually by mid Renaissance I'll catch up; on emperor; and I always play culturally XD I'm currently in love with Brazil's carnival ability)
If I'm lucky with a spawn (desert folklore, holy warriors, mt Sinai), and I can pull a great library off, choose mathematics as free tech, get hanging gardens and then petra on a hilly desert full of sheep, by classic or the very worst medieval era I've over taken them :-/ thanks to 20+ size capital with national college.
I think though that in vanilla some AIs will spawn with a tech research discount or smthg; while having the same number of cities of smaller size than mine, and often having few friends, they still manage to lead my in tech by a whole era. (Catherine and Hiawatha come to mind); now I haven't seen that kind of thing in BNW.
on immortal, I dunno, playing culturally is impossible (no more holing up in one capital city size 50 wonder wall and just waiting for that utopia to happen), and I hate having to go to war (makes the game last longer in real life time) blah, too many clicks; I usually emphasize faith and have to wait (worse in BNW where the entire rationalism tree has to be completed before you can start buying GS with faith) to industrial era or modern era; or sometimes I don't catch up at all but manage to win through diplomacy.
If I'm lucky with a spawn (desert folklore, holy warriors, mt Sinai), and I can pull a great library off, choose mathematics as free tech, get hanging gardens and then petra on a hilly desert full of sheep, by classic or the very worst medieval era I've over taken them :-/ thanks to 20+ size capital with national college.
I think though that in vanilla some AIs will spawn with a tech research discount or smthg; while having the same number of cities of smaller size than mine, and often having few friends, they still manage to lead my in tech by a whole era. (Catherine and Hiawatha come to mind); now I haven't seen that kind of thing in BNW.
on immortal, I dunno, playing culturally is impossible (no more holing up in one capital city size 50 wonder wall and just waiting for that utopia to happen), and I hate having to go to war (makes the game last longer in real life time) blah, too many clicks; I usually emphasize faith and have to wait (worse in BNW where the entire rationalism tree has to be completed before you can start buying GS with faith) to industrial era or modern era; or sometimes I don't catch up at all but manage to win through diplomacy.