Basics – Babylon – Steam Solo

Overview

Hello, this is a quick video guide of what to expect if you are to pick Babylon as your Civilization.

Video of how to play Babylon.

This will tell you what to expect out of the special units, what to expect out of the playstyle, and what victory conditions to expect to dominate with.

Victory Condition

Hello, if you really didn’t want to watch the video I’ll give a quick rundown of what you probably should be thinking if you are randomly paired up with the Babylons or are just new to Civilization and think they would be fun to play!

Victory Conditions

Science
By far the greatest Civilization to play as if you are going for a Scientific Victory. Why is that? Your personality trait grants you Great Scientists as if they are going out of style. You’ll be able to have many Academies throughout your land along with Technology boosts (rushing a tech). If you play your cards right you will need to make sure your spies are within your lands because you will be the smartest by a long shot. Pair this victory condition with Rationalism and your land will be populated with Albert Einsteins. Highly Recommended.
Diplomacy
Nothing compares to Babylons Scientific ability to win. Diplomacy is achieved through helping out City-States with their “Compete in Science!” quests when they offer them. You’ll want to expand quite a bit as Babylon to achieve more science output so you should have luxury resources to trade away to AI players. Somewhat Recommended.
Culture
Chances are you are not going to hunker down and only play with one city. That’s not to say that you can’t or that it is impossible, it just makes it a lot harder. Cultural Victories are based upon that premise and what makes it difficult as Babylon is the fact you have nothing going for you. There is no personality trait to help you. The only benefit is the fact you are a powerhouse at defense – but only for the beginning of the game. Not Recommended.
Domination
Babylon is not someone you think of when it comes to conquests. You think more about all of the laws they enacted while they were an empire. Nonetheless, the same idea goes for them in Civilization V. You are a powerhouse at defense, not offense. It is not impossible to win this way but is more difficult and ignores what your personality trait is all about. Not Recommended.

Social Policies

Won’t get into as depth as the Victory Conditions only because Social Policies can usually go anyway for any Civ and still win. Will only note those that are very important to each Civ.

Liberty
Why Liberty? Isn’t that what you use if you are trying to Dominate? Not in all cases, for Babylon and any Civilization for that matter, you’ll want more land to get more people to become genius’. The more land the more luxury resources to trade, the smarter the people, workers work faster, free settler, and another FREE Great Scientist at the end of the tree (if that’s what you decide to choose).
Rationalism
Adding more fuel to the fire is what you’ll be doing once you choose this Social Policy. This will help you obtain more science quicker thus getting you closer to that Scientific Victory. Adopting all of the Rationalism polices will grant you two free technologies, while you are happy grant you 15% more science, and more science from Research Agreements (which you want to do frequently).

The rest are really up to you on how you’re playstyle will be for policies, Tradition for hunkering down with few cities – Honor for cutting down enemies early on – Liberty for expanding like a mad-man but again, that goes for any Civ, not just the Babylons.

Factoids

Prior to the construction of the Colossus of Rhodes, the Babylonian Ishtar Gate was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The 8th gate to the inner city of Babylon, the Ishtar Gate was designed as both an entry and a shrine to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who represented sexuality, fertility, and love.
The famed walls of Babylon were at one time also considered amongst the Seven Wonders of the World. The Ancient Greek historian Herodotus recorded that these walls surrounding the city were over 300 feet high, 80 feet thick, and 56 miles long, although his account is dubious in the eyes of modern archaeologists.