Is it *possible* to play a strong game without slavery?

[duende29]

Sometimes I don't whip at all, but that is mostly because I Oracled CoL and I'm running a bunch of specialists.

 

[Calouste]

Does anyone know if this goes away if you change civics away from Slavery? I would assume it does, but if it is actually implemented that way in the game is a different manner.

For Spiritual leaders that could make a far less disrupting event, and even for non-Spiritual leaders with an early small empire, the cost of throwing all your additional cities into anarchy might not be as bad as the damage that is done to your capital.

And back to the main topic: I mostly play the Tiny Islands map, you can't play a strong game there without heavy use of the whip. If I play the Dutch, I go as far as beeline to Steam Power and then whip the dikes (only 4 pop with forge and OR).

EDIT: I just saw this was answered a few posts downstream, at least to the point that anarchy and the Slave Revolt happen on the same turn.

 

[Verge]

[Regarding the slave revolt random event.] Does anyone know if this goes away if you change civics away from Slavery? I would assume it does, but if it is actually implemented that way in the game is a different manner.

For Spiritual leaders that could make a far less disrupting event, and even for non-Spiritual leaders with an early small empire, the cost of throwing all your additional cities into anarchy might not be as bad as the damage that is done to your capital.

The slave revolt does indeed only occur while you're in slavery, and spiritual can therefore be quite useful. As it turns out, the only time when I use Slavery very liberally is when I draw a spiritual leader; I'll time builds across multiple cities so they reach an optimal whip stage around the same time. Then I'll revolt to slavery, whip everything I planned on, then revolt back. This takes micromanagement to wring the most out of this strategy, obviously.

 

[Calouste]

Thanks Verge,

I was aware that the Slave revolt only is possible during Slavery. What I was interested in knowing, is that if you are hit by the Slave Revolt and choose the "Let the Revolt continue" option, will the Revolt stop when you switch away from Slavery? Or (in real world terms) are the slaves so enraged that they will continue revolting even though you have given them their freedom?

It would sure be useful if you can just negate the revolt by switching civics rather than sacrificing 1 pop from your capital.

 

[Gliese 581]

I used to never whip, then I read stuff here at civfanatics and I don't think I've played a game wo it since.. imo it's improved my game nicely.
Obviously you're not going to use it very often in the late game, but I find I hardly ever use serfdom and seldom use caste system but mostly rely on a CE, so as long as I'm in slavery, new cities will get key structures whipped and then I let them build/grow normally.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I can win at Noble without slavery and other self-imposed restrictions. I played a game trying to use my own morales, once. It wasn't all that bad, but I ended up running a SE, so the extra population was obviously welcomed.