Anansi (Civ6)

Anansi
Ranged Hero unit
Introduced in Babylon Pack
Game mode	Heroes & Legends
Stats
Movement	3
Movement	3
Melee	18
Melee	18
Ranged	30
Ranged	30
Range	1
Range	1
Sight	2
Sight	2
Lifespan	30
Lifespan	30
Action charges	6
Action charges	6
Passive effect - Agile
Ignores Movement penalties on Woods and Rainforest.
Active ability - Anansi's Tricks
	Use when located on a Bonus or Luxury Resource. Anansi consumes the resource and generates 60 Science and 50 Culture. Any improvement present is destroyed. Costs 1 Charge and all Movement.
Relic
	Drums of Anansi
Notes
Demigod and traveler of African folklore, renowned for his wit and trickery.

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Anansi is a Hero in Civilization VI. He is exclusive to the Heroes & Legends game mode, introduced in the Babylon Pack.

• Attributes:
  • Has 6 Charges.
  • Counts as a ranged unit.
  • Cannot earn experience or Promotions.
• Abilities:
  • Agile: Ignores Movement penalties in Woods and Rainforest terrain.
  • Anansi's Tricks: Use when located on a Bonus or Luxury Resource. Anansi consumes the resource and generates Science and Culture. Any improvement present is destroyed. Costs 1 Charge and all Movement.

Strategy

Like all Hero units, Anansi's Strength increases with the progression of the eras, as shown in the table below.

Era	Combat Strength	Ranged Strength
Classical	28	40
Medieval	36	48
Renaissance	48	60
Industrial	60	72
Modern	72	88
Atomic	84	102
Information	88	106
Future	90	108

The Science and Culture yields of Anansi's Tricks start at 60 and 50 (respectively) and increase by 30 per era.

Anansi's Tricks works regardless of who owns a resource. While it does generate Grievances if used within the territory of a major civilization (15 Grievances per use, regardless of whether the resource is improved or not), a strong strategy is to send him into the territory of someone with whom you have Open Borders and remove key resources, crippling their cities while reaping strong yields at the same time. On the other hand, a safer strategy that doesn't generate Grievances is to send him to resources that are right next to an enemy's borders and destroy them before they get subsumed into the enemy's territory.

Anansi's Tricks cannot be used in territory owned by an Ally, but it can be used in territory owned by a city-state of which you are Suzerain. If Anansi is the first Hero you recruit, this ability can single-handedly provide enough Culture to unlock Political Philosophy (giving you access to the first Tier 1 governments).

Bugs

Using Anansi's Tricks on a tile with an Industry or Corporation will remove all benefits and prevent that type of Industry from being rebuilt. Removing the improvement beforehand will circumvent this issue.

Civilopedia entry

Anansi has traveled far, for a spider. The sometimes-human, sometimes-spider, sometimes-both trickster protagonist of a number of tales from the Akan people in present-day Ghana, Anansi is the hero of stories that have travelled with West African people wherever they have gone, especially amongst enslaved African people in the New World. Here, Anansi, sometimes re-named "Kompa Nanzi" or even "Aunt Nancy" (though Anansi is normally depicted as a man), remains a source of inspiration for those in less powerful positions seeking to use their wit and cunning to turn the tables on their oppressors. Whereas other heroes and deities might have mighty weapons, Anansi has stories.

Before, the sky-god Nyame kept all the stories for himself. Anansi went and asked for them, but Nyame posed to him a series of seemingly impossible tasks that involved gathering up the world’s most dangerous creatures. Anansi went about this not directly, but using the vanity and pride of the great beasts against them. For instance, he let the great python "accidentally" overhear Anansi speculating that the snake wasn’t nearly as long as a nearby branch, and when the python laid down next to the tree to show Anansi his length, Anansi bound him to the branch and captured him. After Nyame saw Anansi’s cleverness, he agreed that from that point on, all stories should belong to the spider, and this is why West Africans tell Anansi stories, and not Nyame stories.

Anansi is not always a virtuous hero. Like many other tricksters he can often be selfish, and at these times especially his plans often go awry. But he is a fitting hero for those who have had to rely upon quick thinking in order to get by.