the more interesting bit with the Great Library for Babylon, is the effect you didn't mention. When another Civ recruits a Great Scientist, you get a free, random, eureka!
Very true Znikch! I think I oversimplified a bit there - such a small map meant I had almost a monopoly on great scientists so I overlooked it. Larger maps with more Great Scientist competition, you're absolutely right in that this is a great wonder for Babylon
Thanks for this series. Good perspective on using Pingala in the capital purely to generate great people, with Magnus in the second city focusing on other districts (Govt, Diplo) and Settler building. Nice.
Was flexing my keyboard warrior fingers to point out the Babylon bits that most people miss. Then remember it's Ryan and the common bits are covered before first city drops!
I'm a year late, but I'll boost my comment with a Eureka. The opening moves for Babylon are almost entirely map dependent, but with some very powerful options. Island maps and situations where the fastest palgum possible (like this freshest of water starts) usually call for builders, but the Sabbum Kibittum is one of the best UU's in the game. It is incredibly effective to rush 2-3 of these, as they are more powerful and further seeing scouts (yes they are scouts compared to the units you will unlock), in the majority of games, especially highlands or lakes with lots of tribal villages to pick up. The "scout" opener can also get a ton of eurekas and free pops/builders that accelerate the game so quickly. Great scientist points are great but almost entirely irrelevant early, especially on higher difficulties with more than 4 players because you will never get early GS without losing tempo, though they are necessary for science victories later in the game. Don't worry about building districts early unless you are going for a great person strategy, as the tempo from builders and UU's far outpaces 10 turns of a district. The devs intended for Babylon to be a civ that rushes out several Sabbum Kibittums early, and transitions that massive early tempo into snowballing eurekas with a late focus on districts that uses the free building to catch back up to the same pace as building them immediately. But most importantly, Babylon is the most flexible civ in terms of round about ways to achieve a variety of win cons. Science victory? Boost everything and build a super capitol for space port. Culture victory? Get flight by turn 80 and use city state improvements to crank tourism. Diplo victory? Win every emergency with super boosting. Conquest? HAHA!, Yes, yes... *insert Conan quote while standing on the prow of a battleship as your enemies discover mathematics*
one of your most helpful videos! it never dawned on me , and I never heard others ever say, that you have to choose which part of the Tech tree to go down deeply. i always tried to get a bit of everything even after the situation in the game made clear where I would do better to go deep. Which is why I have never been able to win past any difficulty past Prince
This is absolutely fantastic. As usual you are great at highlighting subtleties that often get overlooked, interesting and varied mechanics and strats, etc. Usually with Babylon you just hear BOMBARD RUSH GO and that's that but your look into more subtle aspects of their play such as great people generation and prioritizing capital growth at first makes things so much more interesting.
Soon Grant!! TSL games take a long time to film. I mentioned a few days back but I'm in a sort of 10 to 14 day patch where work and personal stuff has severely restricted my free time, so I'm having to film quicker stuff. As soon as I have time, I have the TSL game ready to play. Can't wait!
Oooohhh. I’ve just watched the first minute and I’m excited about this series. Great idea. This kind of in depth guide on 1 civ is a great way of mixing the content up
I honestly find that Babylon is civ on easy mode. Most your techs will be achieved through actions, so as long as you focus your research on techs that you know you are not planning on getting the eurekas for, the -50% debuff is pretty negligible. Good city planning and preplacing districts is important too as district costs will go up quickly as you get free techs throughout the game.
And also focusing on getting lots of campus's and science city states is great. Even with the debuff, you can match the ai's output by mid-game since human district planning is much better than the ai's and especially someone of your skill level can combine various bonuses in order to make up for the debuff.
@@UrsaRyan That's fair. At first it seems like quite a daunting task to do well with them. However when I did try them I was actually rather amazed at how much of an advantage their abilities actually give the player.
Babylon is tough for those of us with ADD. Every new thing that pops up it’s like in the movie Up. “Squirrel!”, and I’m distracted off in a new direction. 🤪 They definitely take some self discipline to play well. Looking forward to the rest of this series.
It's so true!!! So many of the comments on this vid are amazing proof of this point. Sometimes you just have to force yourself to beeline one strat or route, otherwise you get too stretched!
I actually rush for a Slinger and Spearmen to get those early kills to get those techs moving. Archers and Spearmen early game are just amazing defence so they'll treat you well. But as you say, the biggest weakness of Babylon is the pace and making Barbarians so much stronger with early techs. It really hurts early-game AI also as a minor comeuppance, AI dealing with technologically advanced Barbarians means they'll be very friendly to you whilst they deal with near-home issues even on Deity. I focused on civics in my playthroughs (Though I'm not the best at it) but it allowed me to rapid climb both trees and left the AI for dead. I am going to try with Science combo, because great scientists would be fantastic. I'm just still trying to learn what my yields are by eye-balling so I can improve and move to deity from Immortal, I just keep getting rushed to wonders by some of the new leaders that are incredibly strong.
You def wanna include an early slinger in your build, maybe a couple. Then you try to kill a barb with them to unlock archers, which can be difficult. Remember that having 3 archers also unlocks crossbows. I highly recommend, once you have OP military units, to farm science off others via pillaging. I'm not sure if that science gets reduced, but in any case it's super nice to get techs you missed Eurekas for (you might want to mention how speeding through techs sometimes techs you out of being able to complete other Eurekas). I managed a sub 200 science victory on deity doing this for the last era or two.
Yeah, slingers are pretty good for Babylon. Getting a kill with one unlocks archers, which then unlocks crossbowmen, which then unlocks bombards. And good luck to any cities in the first 100 turns surviving any sieges against crossbowmen and a bombard.
I love babylon biplanes in medival era is so balanced its not even hard to get them as long as you get a decent start with a few cities i did today and got them in the medival era and crushed the ai classical era is probobly possible if you try hard enough
"Blabylon" is such a fun civ! I did a couple of science victories with them, but frankly the most fun is domination. And yes, teching advanced units early game makes barbarians scary af... but image the AI going against advanced barbarians. :D I should probably try the "raging barbarians" mod with babylon. :D Three mines down and three archers and the barbs have men at arms and crossbows. The AI will likely only have their capitals and no other cities. :p Regarding the playstyle. The bottleneck for Blabylon is gold, as Ryan mentioned. Teching advanced units early is all good, but upgrades are a huge problem (upgrade cost AND upkeep). In the video you see men at arms unlocked on turn 38, with a production of 160 and upkeep of 9 gpt. But you can't rush their build as it is a medieval unit and Agoge doesn't cover it. Solution? Early war, attacking with Blabylon's mobile unique units speed built with Agoge to pillage the AI for gold. Followed by favorable peace deals. Rinse and repeat. Every time I played Babylon I could only get 2 man at arms and two crossbows max.... they were simply too expensive to upgrade/upkeep AND build. Pillaging the AI with ancient and classical units was the key to push forward. Maybe there is another way... I dunno. For me, violence against neighbors worked best. :D My strat is like this: rush lumber mills, the palgum and an encampment that comes with Barracks for increased production and build a LOT of ancient/classical units with agoge/conscription without triggering apprenticeship until I can afford to upgrade the swordsmen. The UU with a general is quite good. 4 movement and 22 combat strength, upped to 29 with Battlecry.
Great points Luke! As Jeff says, and hopefully I will show, the pike & shot rush is a fab alternative for the less iron minded starts - it can be combined well with Statue of Zeus as well
Babylon is my go to when I just want a fun game, so this should be good. I'll give some tips if I notice anything you don't, Ursa. Edit 1: Diplo Quarter does get a building, Chancery, I think, so free city state yields. And since you only get one Diplo quarter anyway, the one time nature isn't even a demerit. And yes, Perserve does get a free grove.Grove. Edit 2: don't sleep on Religeous Babylon. Not only do you instantly unlock holy site with a natural wonder, but you also get a free shrine. The extra prophet point means you don't need to run holy site prayers to get early religion, and you can to nearly guarantee first religion. Additionally, the way that the science penalty works is that it applies to the science gains from all cities. As a result, science from sources not tied to a city aren't taxed. Cross cultural dialogue is a global bonus, so you can use your faith to increase science. Edit 3: builders are even more valuable early for Babylon than other civs. It's production turned into science (given how many early techs need builder charges) Edit 4: I generally don't focus scientists. Not that it isn't good, but most of the techs they'd boost aren't particularly tough to boost provided you don't tech past them (can't kill a unit with a Spearman if you have Pike and Shot, as an example). So hard rushing them isn't necessary until later in the game, once you've got a few cities set up to push harder for them. If you've got an area of high appeal, you're better off with a perserve to get culture and beeline the Great Library so that you benefit when someone else gets a scientist. You still get free techs from the early ones, and it's not a complete loss if you miss a later one.
If you're just after a chill game there's a modded version of Babylon on the workshop which gives them 100% Inspirations and -50% culture to match the science.
All good points Harold! This all sort of proves the comment of "the issue with Babylon is that there are so many ways you can play them that sometimes you try to do everything and fail at it all"
This is a good plan and I am not a CIV expert even though I started playing with CIV2 way back in the 90's. I am not sure the crossbow rush strat is not a better one. Build slingers, kill barbs, upgrade to archers, use money from barb camps to upgrade to crossbow man in the ancient age and go take a couple capitals. Mainly because it will allow you to take out one or two other civs rather quickly. Its pretty fun having three crossbows going up against a warrior or a spearmen or a city with only say 15-20 def. This in turn gives you extra cities, more area to build in etc. Plus extra science, culture and other benefits from the "free" cities you just conquered. Anyway just my opinion, I suppose it really boils down to play style.
Impossible challenge: recon unit only domination run. You can build all non fighting units but only the scout and its upgrade tree can be used for fighting
Be a little tricky taking cities with recon because they will just attempt to range strike it. But Babylon can get scary recon units pretty early. It can be fun in the mid game when you get a free recon unit from a tribal village and it is a Ranger :)
@@jyutzler I meant you could upgrade the scout. Like you can have a skirmisher and a ranger and the spec ops. Scout can still take a city with 0 health and 0 walls, no matter how strong it is
remember one specific thing with babylon: hold back on eureka until you've placed two canpuses, two commercial districts and two industrial zones. Maybe a preserve if possibleuntil you have the industrial zones for the AOE production bonus it's very hard for your yields to actually sustain advanced units. Prebuild units if you can. if you can get 3 heavy cavalry, 2-5 unique units + starting warriors and 3 slingers you're chilling. scouts alternatively if you can get a clear path to spec ops but that's dependent on having the prerequisite resouces for plastic.
Do you thinks Elon Musk's partner calls him 'Babe-Elon'? Sorry, I'll show myself out. Also, this is a great video! I'm just starting my journey on CIV6 and trying out Babylon. Really helpful!
its hard to play naval bcos you always want to rush to get IZ’s regardless of win con, and a galley or quad cant do jack to a man-at-arms. for religion you kinda wait on the culture to catch up for the tier 2 govmnt bonuses which by the time you get there why not just roll a bombard to an enemy city. thats just my experience tho
@@philibertyt2844 just finished a religious game as them, 4players, didn’t include congo tho bcos that would make it easier, but only on deity and not D++. my army was used to only defend my land as i expanded, bcos of that, the money i would use for upgrading troops to roll cities was used to buy more religious buildings and got mausoleum, mahabodi and hagia. won by turn 196 but could be done quicker by a better player
@@OP_Magikarp actually rather than naval dom babylon is probably better suited for a seafaring colonial game since you could probably travel ocean tiles before turn 100
Ah educational Babylon.. Ok. Next I am waiting either "Babylon deuty++ randomtechs huge volcano world 100 civs you know 🤟" OR "Babylon but its maraphon speed 👹" (you can use mod that makes scince needed 300% of value but production and money is standard)
Nice series! Just a quick question: why people usually doesn't consider putting dams more often? It gives a juicy adjacency for Industrial Zones (and, in there, you could have fitted both a Dam and a Aqueduct north of you city, with the IZ on the north-west, forming a diamond shape), it prevents flood damage and my favorite advantage: allows you to build the Hydroelectric Dam, which gives you 6 power, or 18 power if you have the biosphère! I really don't understand why it is so overlooked! (Edit: I said "synthetic technocracy" instead of "biosphère". I was just thinking about the OP combo they make hahaha)
it's a really good district! it's often late game enough that every time I plan for it a strategic pops up to block it's placement so over time I tend to over look it, but I should build them more, you're absolutely right I think it's a cost to benefit thing. aqueducts are a lot cheaper. unless you're playing england and can just military engineer rush them through!
20:10 You may have skipped your decision making but back when you swapped out the builder (after receiving free builder). Wondering if you shouldn't have chopped out a 2nd builder to rush the 3 mines before the horses appeared.
Hahaha - I think I was saying that Babylon is amazing at science, up until the information era techs. Trying to unlock all the space race projects as Babylon is terrible when you're getting 50% science!
9:17 sorry can’t agree - even Ranger corps can be obtained early and are OP against nearly every military class unit. No resource requirement either. Especially OP if you are skilled at leveling them up with +20 ambush promo
you commented about being careful of barbarians since you're unlocking more powerful units -- is there an argument here that IF you in a reasonably defensible spot that it would be a strategy to unleash those powerful barbs to disrupt your opponents (more than they do you)?
It is indeed - I should have mentioned better at the time, but it's best in maps where the AI is likely to pick up great scientists. I was playing a small map so I had less competition, so I wasn't rushing it as hard, but on a larger map it's much better. Fair enough!
TSL games take a long time to film. I mentioned a few days back but I'm in a sort of 10 to 14 day patch where work and personal stuff has severely restricted my free time, so I'm having to film quicker stuff. As soon as I have time, I have the TSL game ready to play. Can't wait!
Babylon is by far the most fun civ to play. I always go for culture win. You can go apprenticeship->industrialization->Ruhr Valley->Biosphere. The only bottleneck is having to unlock neighborhoods
A thing to consider is that because Babylon quickly pick up some techs from later eras, City States will start giving quest for later era units, inspirations, and civics. And getting all those techs early drives up the production cost of your first districts a LOT. Also, Babylon can benefit a lot more than other empires from pillaged gold. Being able to upgrade a few units can really keep the snowball going, as it is really easy to get, for example, Pike and Shot tech early. Babylon can also rapidly get into high unit maintenance cost issues early. And, because that snowball depend on rapid movement, you need trade routes up early.
Yes, all fantastic points. I think my points about keeping big, productive cities with Babylon is best here - you need all that housing, pop and yields to compensate for the stratospheric city growth and tech bursts!
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Also I don't know what a Discord is. When I use Microsoft Bing to find out what it is, I just get weird results that make no sense.
I kinda think you need not rush campuses. I'd favor theater squares as many cultural techs give eureka in the tech tree. Build the wonder that gives you a free tech every time someone else gets a scientist.
I am sad because this kills the idea which I had to do a game without inspirations or eurekas. And you already played Germany game, so no Maui pre-set up Hanzas, I can only hope for Maui set up harbors now.
What I was very surprised by is how well Babylon worked with its unique ability without feeling absolutely broken. Especially considering that the base game with it's eurekas wasn't made with Babylon's ability in mind. Whenever I've played other games where such unique mechanics were introduced in an expansion it always was a bit of a shitshow at release. The most ridiculous thing in CivVI was Vanilla Russia and Hungary on release which both weren't too bad. It's just a really well made game.
the more interesting bit with the Great Library for Babylon, is the effect you didn't mention. When another Civ recruits a Great Scientist, you get a free, random, eureka!
genius!
Very true Znikch! I think I oversimplified a bit there - such a small map meant I had almost a monopoly on great scientists so I overlooked it. Larger maps with more Great Scientist competition, you're absolutely right in that this is a great wonder for Babylon
Yeah thats pretty good you won't get all scientist so why not get a free boost, thats was I thought but forget to mention
When i manage to build it, they're already claim most of the GS, only industrial and later era gs left
Thank you for this...I literally came to this video coz I was struggling in the late game 😢
YES! I WOULD LOVE A SERIES WHERE YOU DO THIS FOR ALL CIVS OMG
people like me who kinda suck would appreciate this kinda content so much i beg
Maybe not every civ, there are a lot of them that play very similarly to each other.
But for each specialist/oddball civ, this would be nice.
Thanks for this series. Good perspective on using Pingala in the capital purely to generate great people, with Magnus in the second city focusing on other districts (Govt, Diplo) and Settler building. Nice.
Thank you! Yes, I'd suggest the pingala / magnus split with a few civs, it's a good combo
Was flexing my keyboard warrior fingers to point out the Babylon bits that most people miss. Then remember it's Ryan and the common bits are covered before first city drops!
Phew! Hope I did an OK job
@@UrsaRyan Nope, an amazing job. Hit so many of the key points other YTers missed.
I'm a year late, but I'll boost my comment with a Eureka. The opening moves for Babylon are almost entirely map dependent, but with some very powerful options. Island maps and situations where the fastest palgum possible (like this freshest of water starts) usually call for builders, but the Sabbum Kibittum is one of the best UU's in the game. It is incredibly effective to rush 2-3 of these, as they are more powerful and further seeing scouts (yes they are scouts compared to the units you will unlock), in the majority of games, especially highlands or lakes with lots of tribal villages to pick up.
The "scout" opener can also get a ton of eurekas and free pops/builders that accelerate the game so quickly. Great scientist points are great but almost entirely irrelevant early, especially on higher difficulties with more than 4 players because you will never get early GS without losing tempo, though they are necessary for science victories later in the game. Don't worry about building districts early unless you are going for a great person strategy, as the tempo from builders and UU's far outpaces 10 turns of a district.
The devs intended for Babylon to be a civ that rushes out several Sabbum Kibittums early, and transitions that massive early tempo into snowballing eurekas with a late focus on districts that uses the free building to catch back up to the same pace as building them immediately.
But most importantly, Babylon is the most flexible civ in terms of round about ways to achieve a variety of win cons. Science victory? Boost everything and build a super capitol for space port. Culture victory? Get flight by turn 80 and use city state improvements to crank tourism. Diplo victory? Win every emergency with super boosting. Conquest? HAHA!, Yes, yes... *insert Conan quote while standing on the prow of a battleship as your enemies discover mathematics*
one of your most helpful videos! it never dawned on me , and I never heard others ever say, that you have to choose which part of the Tech tree to go down deeply. i always tried to get a bit of everything even after the situation in the game made clear where I would do better to go deep. Which is why I have never been able to win past any difficulty past Prince
it's true, especially with Babylon! Focus is key
This is absolutely fantastic. As usual you are great at highlighting subtleties that often get overlooked, interesting and varied mechanics and strats, etc. Usually with Babylon you just hear BOMBARD RUSH GO and that's that but your look into more subtle aspects of their play such as great people generation and prioritizing capital growth at first makes things so much more interesting.
Wohoo! So glad it's a useful guide = )
So excited! Question: when is the dutch series coming?
Yess
Soon Grant!!
TSL games take a long time to film. I mentioned a few days back but I'm in a sort of 10 to 14 day patch where work and personal stuff has severely restricted my free time, so I'm having to film quicker stuff. As soon as I have time, I have the TSL game ready to play. Can't wait!
@@UrsaRyan wow I had no clue of that. Cannot wait! Loving the series, just started my own German city state campaign
Yes absolutely love this in depth stuff Is really helpful and no one does it better than you. Keep it up !
Glad to hear it!
Getting a great scientist also unlocks education for Babylon. So that’s 4 techs with Zhang Heng
Oooohhh. I’ve just watched the first minute and I’m excited about this series. Great idea. This kind of in depth guide on 1 civ is a great way of mixing the content up
I have a feeling this video will do really well this month with the Hamurabi challenge, thats why im here after all
Soon to appear on the channel!
I honestly find that Babylon is civ on easy mode. Most your techs will be achieved through actions, so as long as you focus your research on techs that you know you are not planning on getting the eurekas for, the -50% debuff is pretty negligible. Good city planning and preplacing districts is important too as district costs will go up quickly as you get free techs throughout the game.
And also focusing on getting lots of campus's and science city states is great. Even with the debuff, you can match the ai's output by mid-game since human district planning is much better than the ai's and especially someone of your skill level can combine various bonuses in order to make up for the debuff.
Babylon can be Civ on easy mode when you understand them. I think as a civ, many people struggle to get the complexities
@@UrsaRyan That's fair. At first it seems like quite a daunting task to do well with them. However when I did try them I was actually rather amazed at how much of an advantage their abilities actually give the player.
Babylon is tough for those of us with ADD. Every new thing that pops up it’s like in the movie Up. “Squirrel!”, and I’m distracted off in a new direction. 🤪 They definitely take some self discipline to play well. Looking forward to the rest of this series.
It's so true!!! So many of the comments on this vid are amazing proof of this point. Sometimes you just have to force yourself to beeline one strat or route, otherwise you get too stretched!
This is must watch before playing Babylon :)
I actually rush for a Slinger and Spearmen to get those early kills to get those techs moving. Archers and Spearmen early game are just amazing defence so they'll treat you well.
But as you say, the biggest weakness of Babylon is the pace and making Barbarians so much stronger with early techs. It really hurts early-game AI also as a minor comeuppance, AI dealing with technologically advanced Barbarians means they'll be very friendly to you whilst they deal with near-home issues even on Deity.
I focused on civics in my playthroughs (Though I'm not the best at it) but it allowed me to rapid climb both trees and left the AI for dead. I am going to try with Science combo, because great scientists would be fantastic. I'm just still trying to learn what my yields are by eye-balling so I can improve and move to deity from Immortal, I just keep getting rushed to wonders by some of the new leaders that are incredibly strong.
You def wanna include an early slinger in your build, maybe a couple. Then you try to kill a barb with them to unlock archers, which can be difficult. Remember that having 3 archers also unlocks crossbows.
I highly recommend, once you have OP military units, to farm science off others via pillaging. I'm not sure if that science gets reduced, but in any case it's super nice to get techs you missed Eurekas for (you might want to mention how speeding through techs sometimes techs you out of being able to complete other Eurekas). I managed a sub 200 science victory on deity doing this for the last era or two.
All very good points! Slinger strat is a very good, common play. As mentioned, the main issue with Babylon is focusing, too much good stuff to get!!
Yeah, slingers are pretty good for Babylon. Getting a kill with one unlocks archers, which then unlocks crossbowmen, which then unlocks bombards. And good luck to any cities in the first 100 turns surviving any sieges against crossbowmen and a bombard.
I love babylon biplanes in medival era is so balanced its not even hard to get them as long as you get a decent start with a few cities i did today and got them in the medival era and crushed the ai classical era is probobly possible if you try hard enough
Oh, I never thought about rushing those great scientists. This is some good stuff
"Blabylon" is such a fun civ! I did a couple of science victories with them, but frankly the most fun is domination. And yes, teching advanced units early game makes barbarians scary af... but image the AI going against advanced barbarians. :D I should probably try the "raging barbarians" mod with babylon. :D Three mines down and three archers and the barbs have men at arms and crossbows. The AI will likely only have their capitals and no other cities. :p
Regarding the playstyle. The bottleneck for Blabylon is gold, as Ryan mentioned. Teching advanced units early is all good, but upgrades are a huge problem (upgrade cost AND upkeep). In the video you see men at arms unlocked on turn 38, with a production of 160 and upkeep of 9 gpt. But you can't rush their build as it is a medieval unit and Agoge doesn't cover it. Solution? Early war, attacking with Blabylon's mobile unique units speed built with Agoge to pillage the AI for gold. Followed by favorable peace deals. Rinse and repeat. Every time I played Babylon I could only get 2 man at arms and two crossbows max.... they were simply too expensive to upgrade/upkeep AND build. Pillaging the AI with ancient and classical units was the key to push forward. Maybe there is another way... I dunno. For me, violence against neighbors worked best. :D My strat is like this: rush lumber mills, the palgum and an encampment that comes with Barracks for increased production and build a LOT of ancient/classical units with agoge/conscription without triggering apprenticeship until I can afford to upgrade the swordsmen. The UU with a general is quite good. 4 movement and 22 combat strength, upped to 29 with Battlecry.
Great points Luke! As Jeff says, and hopefully I will show, the pike & shot rush is a fab alternative for the less iron minded starts - it can be combined well with Statue of Zeus as well
“Just on some generic floodplain” he says, as it has corn on it.
I much prefer this less heavily edited version of our Ursa.
Babylon man has weird eyes.
Ursa man attempts to look at Babylon man in the eyes.
Will he win?
Babylon is my go to when I just want a fun game, so this should be good. I'll give some tips if I notice anything you don't, Ursa.
Edit 1: Diplo Quarter does get a building, Chancery, I think, so free city state yields. And since you only get one Diplo quarter anyway, the one time nature isn't even a demerit. And yes, Perserve does get a free grove.Grove.
Edit 2: don't sleep on Religeous Babylon. Not only do you instantly unlock holy site with a natural wonder, but you also get a free shrine. The extra prophet point means you don't need to run holy site prayers to get early religion, and you can to nearly guarantee first religion. Additionally, the way that the science penalty works is that it applies to the science gains from all cities. As a result, science from sources not tied to a city aren't taxed. Cross cultural dialogue is a global bonus, so you can use your faith to increase science.
Edit 3: builders are even more valuable early for Babylon than other civs. It's production turned into science (given how many early techs need builder charges)
Edit 4: I generally don't focus scientists. Not that it isn't good, but most of the techs they'd boost aren't particularly tough to boost provided you don't tech past them (can't kill a unit with a Spearman if you have Pike and Shot, as an example). So hard rushing them isn't necessary until later in the game, once you've got a few cities set up to push harder for them. If you've got an area of high appeal, you're better off with a perserve to get culture and beeline the Great Library so that you benefit when someone else gets a scientist. You still get free techs from the early ones, and it's not a complete loss if you miss a later one.
If you're just after a chill game there's a modded version of Babylon on the workshop which gives them 100% Inspirations and -50% culture to match the science.
All good points Harold! This all sort of proves the comment of "the issue with Babylon is that there are so many ways you can play them that sometimes you try to do everything and fail at it all"
@@UrsaRyan true enough. Maybe the reason I never notice is a generally play on Marathon, so time rarely factors in the long run.
Great series! I've been hoping to see an unedited Let's Play from you!
Wohoo! Hope it's worth it
This is a good plan and I am not a CIV expert even though I started playing with CIV2 way back in the 90's. I am not sure the crossbow rush strat is not a better one. Build slingers, kill barbs, upgrade to archers, use money from barb camps to upgrade to crossbow man in the ancient age and go take a couple capitals. Mainly because it will allow you to take out one or two other civs rather quickly. Its pretty fun having three crossbows going up against a warrior or a spearmen or a city with only say 15-20 def. This in turn gives you extra cities, more area to build in etc. Plus extra science, culture and other benefits from the "free" cities you just conquered. Anyway just my opinion, I suppose it really boils down to play style.
Also note that once you get plastics, you unlock spec ops! Paradrop around and pretty good ranged strength considering you can rush it soooo early lol
Very true! I never like the cost to strength ratio of spec ops but they are powerful, it's true!
Impossible challenge: recon unit only domination run. You can build all non fighting units but only the scout and its upgrade tree can be used for fighting
Be a little tricky taking cities with recon because they will just attempt to range strike it. But Babylon can get scary recon units pretty early. It can be fun in the mid game when you get a free recon unit from a tribal village and it is a Ranger :)
@@jyutzler I meant you could upgrade the scout. Like you can have a skirmisher and a ranger and the spec ops. Scout can still take a city with 0 health and 0 walls, no matter how strong it is
@@michaelsandy2869 Alternatively he can use other ranged units but he can only use scouts for melee attacks
You can make more insane leaps if you play on marathon speed... Because that's a TON of turns saved from full eureka bonuses. It's very weird.
I bet, sounds fun!
remember one specific thing with babylon: hold back on eureka until you've placed two canpuses, two commercial districts and two industrial zones. Maybe a preserve if possibleuntil you have the industrial zones for the AOE production bonus it's very hard for your yields to actually sustain advanced units.
Prebuild units if you can. if you can get 3 heavy cavalry, 2-5 unique units + starting warriors and 3 slingers you're chilling. scouts alternatively if you can get a clear path to spec ops but that's dependent on having the prerequisite resouces for plastic.
very interesting game. true, it's hard to focus on one thing being babylon.
it's true, it's like being a kid in a toy store, I just want everything
That introduction alone gives me an idea of chaining actions together to get the most effective/efficient way of getting down the tech tree
With Babylon, it's a great idea to do just that!
You could have gotten an extra +1 on your Industrial zone (from the horses), if you had switched its position with the planned Aqueduct.
Do you thinks Elon Musk's partner calls him 'Babe-Elon'? Sorry, I'll show myself out. Also, this is a great video! I'm just starting my journey on CIV6 and trying out Babylon. Really helpful!
These tribal villages rewards are disgusting... Also meteor shower next to the capital, duuude.
The sky is kind to me today
When i see people play babylon i think it's quite simple and they never explore options for naval dom or religious victory route
its hard to play naval bcos you always want to rush to get IZ’s regardless of win con, and a galley or quad cant do jack to a man-at-arms. for religion you kinda wait on the culture to catch up for the tier 2 govmnt bonuses which by the time you get there why not just roll a bombard to an enemy city. thats just my experience tho
@@OP_Magikarp yes but i'm just saying babylon can go that route and plus i haven't tested that since i don't own any DLC
@@philibertyt2844 just finished a religious game as them, 4players, didn’t include congo tho bcos that would make it easier, but only on deity and not D++. my army was used to only defend my land as i expanded, bcos of that, the money i would use for upgrading troops to roll cities was used to buy more religious buildings and got mausoleum, mahabodi and hagia. won by turn 196 but could be done quicker by a better player
@@OP_Magikarp actually rather than naval dom babylon is probably better suited for a seafaring colonial game since you could probably travel ocean tiles before turn 100
@@OP_Magikarp also that game looks interesting
So cool. I'm already waiting for the next episodes
Woo! Excited for this
Used captions and ursa ryan turned to esser island LOL
close enough = )
Ah educational Babylon.. Ok. Next I am waiting either "Babylon deuty++ randomtechs huge volcano world 100 civs you know 🤟" OR "Babylon but its maraphon speed 👹" (you can use mod that makes scince needed 300% of value but production and money is standard)
Nice series!
Just a quick question: why people usually doesn't consider putting dams more often? It gives a juicy adjacency for Industrial Zones (and, in there, you could have fitted both a Dam and a Aqueduct north of you city, with the IZ on the north-west, forming a diamond shape), it prevents flood damage and my favorite advantage: allows you to build the Hydroelectric Dam, which gives you 6 power, or 18 power if you have the biosphère!
I really don't understand why it is so overlooked!
(Edit: I said "synthetic technocracy" instead of "biosphère". I was just thinking about the OP combo they make hahaha)
it's a really good district! it's often late game enough that every time I plan for it a strategic pops up to block it's placement so over time I tend to over look it, but I should build them more, you're absolutely right
I think it's a cost to benefit thing. aqueducts are a lot cheaper. unless you're playing england and can just military engineer rush them through!
20:10 You may have skipped your decision making but back when you swapped out the builder (after receiving free builder). Wondering if you shouldn't have chopped out a 2nd builder to rush the 3 mines before the horses appeared.
maybe! I think I intended to build, it just suddenly wasn't as needed
@@UrsaRyan aye, those villages were perfect for you, was taking timeout to play dune spice wars, you've forced a rethink with this series.
Is my hearing going bad i heard half as good at science
Hahaha - I think I was saying that Babylon is amazing at science, up until the information era techs. Trying to unlock all the space race projects as Babylon is terrible when you're getting 50% science!
Babylon can hardly go wrong with the University of Sankore.
9:17 sorry can’t agree - even Ranger corps can be obtained early and are OP against nearly every military class unit. No resource requirement either.
Especially OP if you are skilled at leveling them up with +20 ambush promo
you commented about being careful of barbarians since you're unlocking more powerful units -- is there an argument here that IF you in a reasonably defensible spot that it would be a strategy to unleash those powerful barbs to disrupt your opponents (more than they do you)?
oh absolutely! it's just that when barbarians are powerful, you want to make sure you're better defended than the AI to get the advantage!
Isn't the great library a good pick up for Babylon?
It is indeed - I should have mentioned better at the time, but it's best in maps where the AI is likely to pick up great scientists. I was playing a small map so I had less competition, so I wasn't rushing it as hard, but on a larger map it's much better. Fair enough!
@@UrsaRyan hey thank you for Answering that's so cool of you :)
The free workshop that you get with the industrial zone, does that count as 1 of the 2 needed for the other eurika mentioned?
It does, very helpful!
22:00 Baby Lon is already on 12 pop? Huh?
Edit: Fixed time stamp.
Other strat
Farm into palgum into lumber mills
When you pilot the babylon it is undestroyable
Oh this is gonna be good!
Babylon this is the strongest Civilization in the game.
really excited for this series, but i was wondering what happened to the dutch TSL game?
It's coming! Hold your dijks!
Gone, reduced to atoms
TSL games take a long time to film. I mentioned a few days back but I'm in a sort of 10 to 14 day patch where work and personal stuff has severely restricted my free time, so I'm having to film quicker stuff. As soon as I have time, I have the TSL game ready to play. Can't wait!
@@UrsaRyan thanks, also plaese take your time and make sure you dont get overwhelmed by everything
For the algo. For Baby Lon
You can always trust Ryan to lighten up your day!
Just like a lamp
Babylon is by far the most fun civ to play. I always go for culture win. You can go apprenticeship->industrialization->Ruhr Valley->Biosphere. The only bottleneck is having to unlock neighborhoods
That's an amazing idea actually, great shout!
A thing to consider is that because Babylon quickly pick up some techs from later eras, City States will start giving quest for later era units, inspirations, and civics. And getting all those techs early drives up the production cost of your first districts a LOT. Also, Babylon can benefit a lot more than other empires from pillaged gold. Being able to upgrade a few units can really keep the snowball going, as it is really easy to get, for example, Pike and Shot tech early. Babylon can also rapidly get into high unit maintenance cost issues early. And, because that snowball depend on rapid movement, you need trade routes up early.
Yes, all fantastic points. I think my points about keeping big, productive cities with Babylon is best here - you need all that housing, pop and yields to compensate for the stratospheric city growth and tech bursts!
Babylon is a hacker
U can not say he hacks in tech
Pog
Just me, but from your explanation, builders are going to be key at the beginning and even throughout the game. Builders, builders, builders!
True! The most tech boosts you're going to get can be found via builders early game
doesn't start playing the game until half way through the video? is this a potatomcwhiskey video?
If only I was that good
How do you get the next episode ? sry old guy :)
there is a set of playlists on the main channel page if you need them!
Try a moded game with Malaysia
Baby Lon do do do do do do
Ba, by, lon do do dodo do do
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Also I don't know what a Discord is. When I use Microsoft Bing to find out what it is, I just get weird results that make no sense.
he's got a link in the description. it's a website.
yep, follow the link in the description!
3000 hours and you think you're no expert? How many hours does it take?
Haha - an expert knows that they know nothing. I think?? XD
I kinda think you need not rush campuses. I'd favor theater squares as many cultural techs give eureka in the tech tree. Build the wonder that gives you a free tech every time someone else gets a scientist.
This is a great alternative Bab strat, totally agree
Babylon is my favorite domination civ in the game. Modern armor by turn 130.
Can’t wait to beat my friends as Babylon after this series is over
I am sad because this kills the idea which I had to do a game without inspirations or eurekas. And you already played Germany game, so no Maui pre-set up Hanzas, I can only hope for Maui set up harbors now.
Never say never
Also I used Maui a tonne on previous series if you want to go back and check those out = )
So: y'all always pull godking, say 'I don't need it', then miss the settler pantheon... just sayin' ;)
When will you play korea full science?🤨
Already have a few times, but perhaps I will again!
Is it fair to say that CIV6 is more complex, and require more skill and memory than chess?
Hmm - maybe? Chess is pretty complicated! Plus people are very, very good at chess
The nose knows…
What I was very surprised by is how well Babylon worked with its unique ability without feeling absolutely broken.
Especially considering that the base game with it's eurekas wasn't made with Babylon's ability in mind.
Whenever I've played other games where such unique mechanics were introduced in an expansion it always was a bit of a shitshow at release.
The most ridiculous thing in CivVI was Vanilla Russia and Hungary on release which both weren't too bad. It's just a really well made game.
it's true, Babylon works well! they can be silly but the AI can often use them OK
lol bump
bump!
All fun but half of the vid was explaining ik babylon is a advanced civ but man 😅
Tis a masterclass after all!
@@UrsaRyan yeah it was fun i also started playing civ again bc of you
69th like again 🤯
nice
Will still watch, but the intros and explanations are my least favorite part of your vids. So this for of explained is not for me
Don't worry, more gameplay comes later