Length of Anarchy During Revolution

[Catt]

I had recently been wondering about the length of anarchy when a non-religious civ elects to change governements. Was it random? Was it dependent on number of cities or population? Was it dependent on civ happiness? Was it dependent on the form of government being abandoned? Was it dependent on difficulty level?

I have seen numerous posts speculating on all of the above (and various combinations of the above). Despite some reasonably diligent forum searching, I couldn't find anything definitive (i.e., convincing player tests or Firaxian comment). Another 'Poly poster even went so far as to post the query on that "other" popular Civ forum site. Nothing.

In a totally unrelated thread, a poster on that "other" site actually provided a link to an explanation from Soren -- just so happens that the link is to a 'Poly thread

To those of you who have, like me, been wondering about anarchy, it seems that Soren confirmed (way back in February) that the length is always between 1 - 5 turns on a random basis, with an additional 0-3 turns depending on number of cities, producing a range of possibilities of between 1 and 8 turns. Could have been changed, I suppose, in a later patch, but I have no reason to suspect that.

The link (for Soren's comments directly) is here.

Catt

[miccofl]

I have seen it take many turns and I have seen it end on the next turn with no obvious reason for the length of time. It must still be random. I would rate the difference as being between a bloodless coup and a full blown bloody revolution and then everything that would fit in between the two.

[zeh]

In my games, it gos from 4 to 5 turns. Once take 6 turns, but only that time.
The numbers of citis make sense, since there are less turns of anarchy when I change to Monarchy, in the beggining of the game when I change to Democracy later, at the end of middle age, when I usualy have more cities.

[Skeeve]

I had anarchy last for 8 turns once during the middle ages. It was horrible. It was like experiencing a reverse golden age!

Anything more then 6 turns, and I reload. (It was all just a bad dream.... now open your eyes, open your eyes).

[planetfall]

In my games, quickest has been 4 turns and longest has been 8 turns. I have not seen any relationship between when the switch is made or the size of civ and the anarchy period.

I have not been keeping records, but lately I tried

1. save game
2. order government switch
3. if period is < 6 turns, continue.
4. else, load save game and wait til later.

In previous game, I had a wait of 8 turns.
Reloaded from save, waited 2 turns, and now wait was 5 turns. If it was related to either empire size or number of cities the number should not have reduced.

-- PF

[Theseus]

PF:

1-5 random
plus
1-3 from # of cities

So that explains your result.

[Catt]

Originally posted by planetfall
In previous game, I had a wait of 8 turns.
Reloaded from save, waited 2 turns, and now wait was 5 turns. If it was related to either empire size or number of cities the number should not have reduced.

I wasn't terribly clear in the first post. The number of turns appears to be calculated as follows:

Step 1: Random number between 1 and 5.
Step 2: Number between 0 - 3 depending on number of cities
Step 3: Add numbers from Step 1 and Step 2 for total anarchy turns.

I suspect that in your game PF, Step 2 remained constant at "3." The Step 1 random number was "5" on the first switch, and "2" on the second switch after reloading and waiting a turn or two.

Catt

[planetfall]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Theseus

Aye, Aye, ye majesty.

[Theseus]

??

[planetfall]

Originally posted by Theseus
??

prince bows to king

[Theseus]

Bows back.

[Kingof the Apes]

In a recent game I had an 8 turn anarchy....in the Industrial age.
wow, I thought I would never play as a non-religious civ again.

[Catt]

Originally posted by Kingof the Apes
In a recent game I had an 8 turn anarchy....in the Industrial age.
wow, I thought I would never play as a non-religious civ again.

And the reason I was searching for an answer was in a recent game on Emperor I had a decent-sized empire (14 or so cities on a standard map) and my anarchy was only 3 turns. I had believed that anarchy lengthened for the human at the higher difficulty levels, and was very pleasantly surprised to enjoy only a 3-turn anarchy.

But I have "enjoyed" 8 turn anarchies before myself.

Catt

[wvfoos]

I didn't see this mentioned in this thread (mabye everyone already knows it), but I noticed when I changed over from despot to repub last night, I got a message from the advisor up in the top right corner, something like "I estimate there will be 3 turns of anarchy" or something like that. Looking back, I think it was before I clicked the "final" button to engage the revolution. I'm thinking he tells you what the number of anarchy turns will be BEFORE you actually revolt.

[zeh]

BEFORE???
I really never see that.
He always tells the estimated revolt turns only after I began a revolt.
Of course if he can estimate the time of a revolt I will consult him first, and wait a couple more turns if the time is large.
BTW, you can cheat, revolting, see the estimated revolt time with the advisor and reload the game if needed. But this is a shame, hehehe.

[planetfall]

wvfoos--

if others can verify this, this information would really help game play. It may be a bug and we have to wait for advisor to scroll thru his set messages, but still the wait might be worth it.

I have only seen the number of turns message after I made the yes revolt is ok confirmation.

--PF

[wvfoos]

I'm not 100% sure about it being before or after. If you guys have seen it, and its after the revolt starts, then I'm probably wrong. I just didnt' see anyone mention anything like that, so I thought I had found something.

[bbaws]

I'd assumed up till now that the anarchy was always five turns, I had noticed it always feels like eight though.