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As everyone knows, when anarchy comes, cities' normal production grinds to a halt. Even the Civil Engineers go on strike and stop producing anything. Cities can grow if they can get enough food without rioting. But that still leaves the question of what to do with cities that cannot grow anymore.
The answer is found in tax collectors and scientists, both of whom continue to function normally in spite of the anarchy. Since I normally use scientists, I'll write in those terms, but the same tricks would work with tax collectors if a player prefers.
With scientists, cities that can no longer grow can continue producing some value by changing as many laborers as possible without starving into scientists. When cities are at size 12 and max food and normally run a food surplus, it may even make sense to run a food deficit while in anarchy to support extra scientists. Citizens that normally work mountains are always better off as scientists, since they don't produce food either way and wealth and shields from tiles are irrelevant. Hills are another good source of possible scientists since they produce relatively little food, as are deserts (except for irrigated ones for agricultural civs). And changing which cities work which tiles can sometimes allow additional scientists (for example, pulling laborers from land tiles to water tiles so a neighboring city can have a grassland laborer and a scientist instead of two hill laborers).
Obviously, a fair amount of micromanagement is involved in using that approach, and not every player will view it as worth the hassle. But there is at least a little bit of profit to be had for those willing to micromanage.
Nathan
The answer is found in tax collectors and scientists, both of whom continue to function normally in spite of the anarchy. Since I normally use scientists, I'll write in those terms, but the same tricks would work with tax collectors if a player prefers.
With scientists, cities that can no longer grow can continue producing some value by changing as many laborers as possible without starving into scientists. When cities are at size 12 and max food and normally run a food surplus, it may even make sense to run a food deficit while in anarchy to support extra scientists. Citizens that normally work mountains are always better off as scientists, since they don't produce food either way and wealth and shields from tiles are irrelevant. Hills are another good source of possible scientists since they produce relatively little food, as are deserts (except for irrigated ones for agricultural civs). And changing which cities work which tiles can sometimes allow additional scientists (for example, pulling laborers from land tiles to water tiles so a neighboring city can have a grassland laborer and a scientist instead of two hill laborers).
Obviously, a fair amount of micromanagement is involved in using that approach, and not every player will view it as worth the hassle. But there is at least a little bit of profit to be had for those willing to micromanage.
Nathan
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