Anarchy!

[Jason Fliegel]

Is there anything a non-religious civ can do to minimize the anarchy period when you switch governments? What determines the length of time you're in anarchy?

Anarchy reducing city improvements/wonders/technologies are my number two most desired addition to the game, right behind more corruption reducing improvements/wonders/technologies.

 

[DragonRunner]

Not as far as I know. Maybe happieness has something to do with it?

 

[smackster]

Its a random number, but I think it may be affected by the number of cities you have.

There is only one trick I know for reducing the time of anarchy (and its a little risky), when you research the required tech (say Monarchy) you get the choice to view the technology map, at that screen hit F1 and you are at the city screen, and you can start anarchy then, you also get to see how many turns of anarchy you get. When you exit that screen, Civ will ask you if you wish to switch governments and if you didn't like the amount of turns you got, agree to switch and you will get a different amount of turns of anarchy.

I have used it a few times and reduced the amount of turns I get. Also one time I got 5 turns in the city screen and then 8 after I agreed to switch govnt, I said it was a little risky. So I try the second switch only if I get 6 turns +. And this only works if you research the tech.

Smackster

 

[Turner]

I'm pretty sure this is accurate:

Anarchy lenght consists of 1-5 random turns plus 0-3 "empire-size-based" turns. So you'd get 1-8 turns playing a non-religious civ.

I'm not so sure how empire size is defined here, but I *guess* it's based on ratio of current number of cities/OCN.

 

[smackster]

I can't remember when I saw less than 4 turns, so I would guess that I normally switch when my empire is on the large size. Actually it might be possible to test this out, setup a game where you are about to switch and abandon cities to see how that affects the number of turns. I assume doing that would not affect the seed for determining the anarchy turns.

Any volunteers.

Smackster

 

[Turner]

Seems to me four is the lowest I've seen recently. But I have seen lower in PTW and VC3, just not Conquests. Of course, I tend to be a bit bigger when going to anarchy here lately.

 

[Tomoyo]

I have gotten a one turn anarchy in vanilla civ once, with the French. (OCC)

 

[Kiech]

Once on a buggy version of Vanilla Civ, I had anarchy for 12+ turns...it really stank. I played religious civs for quite a while after that.

 

[Darkness]

I've had a 2 turn anarchy with the Iroquois (com/agr) last night...

 

[starrider]

I've had a 2 turn anarchy with the Iroquois (com/agr) last night...

Uhh I thought Iroquios were Religious/Expansionist??? That is why I played them initially because of the religious trait...

 

[knacki]

Uhh I thought Iroquios were Religious/Expansionist??? That is why I played them initially because of the religious trait...

I think it's still true for PTW, but not anymore in C3C...

 

[Samson]

hit F1 and you are at the city screen, and you can start anarchy then, you also get to see how many turns of anarchy you get.

Where do you see how many turns of anarchy you get? Even if I do not use this trick (exploit?) then it would be handy to know when I shall come out of anarchy.

 

[Turner]

Where do you see how many turns of anarchy you get? Even if I do not use this trick (exploit?) then it would be handy to know when I shall come out of anarchy.

It's not an exploit. Click on the Domestic advisor until she tells you how many turns until anarchy is over.

 

[Grille]

There's a method to get into a new sort of government a bit earlier. i.e revolting before you actually know the desrired sort of gov. You can always make a revolt if you know at least one gov-tech except despotism.
During the anarchy, you would either try to finish researching the desired gov-tech on your own with scientist(s) or you could try to trade for the tech just before the anarchy phase is over (and hope for a drop in price during anarchy phase due to a civ selling around that tech meanwhile).

For example, in the first case, you could make a 40/50 turns run towards Republic. If you already know Monarchy, you could make a revolt before you finished researching Republic and complete the tech with one scientist during anarchy. Well, depending on expansion speed (and current number of cities in relation to the OCN respectively), it is (on standart maps) almost safe to make the revolt 3 turns before Rep is in. If you then get a (short) anarchy phase of 3 turns, you will first get the new tech choice prompt and then the gov choice prompt - Rep will be on the gov choice list immediately (just don't make a 'new' revolt after discovering Rep...). This method won't cut down anarchy length, of course, but you would leave out of despotism earlier.
If you have a fairly high amount of cities, you could try to gamble and make the revolt, say, 5 turns before the tech is in. There's of course some risk involved, if the RNG draws a 'good' number... (anarchy is over before the desired tech is in).
Or, if you have a lot of population, don't go for a min-science run @40/50 turns at all and finish the tech with a ton of scientists (3 beakers per scientists in C3C is not that bad). There's risk of losing pop due to starvation, so a TechCalc comes pretty handy here.

In the other case (trying to hope for a drop in price on the tech market), you just hope that a civ that knows your desired gov tech sells it around in time, thus cutting down the price. You would then buy it 1 turn before the anarchy is over.

 

[Samson]

Click on the Domestic advisor until she tells you how many turns until anarchy is over.

Thanks.

It's not an exploit.

I am sure knowing how many turns you are in anarchy for is not, but surly "breaking into the turn sequence" and then messing about to get a lower expected number of turns in anarchy is not what you are supposed to do, so is at least bordering on an exploit?

 

[knacki]

There is only one trick I know for reducing the time of anarchy (and its a little risky), when you research the required tech (say Monarchy) you get the choice to view the technology map, at that screen hit F1 and you are at the city screen, and you can start anarchy then, you also get to see how many turns of anarchy you get. When you exit that screen, Civ will ask you if you wish to switch governments and if you didn't like the amount of turns you got, agree to switch and you will get a different amount of turns of anarchy.
Smackster

IMO this should be considered as an exploit, since u shouldn't be asked if u want to revolt if u're already in anarchy . This obviously is a mistake by the programmers.
Well, on the other hand, since it's risky, u can heavily pay the trick.

 

[smackster]

Yes, I agree its a little exploitive. The fact that you can hit F1 from that screen is the main problem with the programming. You can use this same trick for building the final space ship part a turn earlier (switch a pre-build to the final part when you discover the tech and finish the space ship the same turn you discover the last tech).

This second trick, is explicitly allowed in GOTM however.

Smackster

 

[alamo]

It is a re-roll when you don't like the first one. Yes, it is obviously an exploit. Not nearly as large as a palace jump, though.

It is currently allowed in GOTM, which probably says more about it being impossible to detect.

 

[general_kill]

I have gotten a one turn anarchy in vanilla civ once, with the French. (OCC)

The french wasnt a civilization in vanilla civ

 

[Shirastro]

Uhmmm, yes it was