Babylon: King's of Culture

5CC, culture is the only victory condition. I'm playing Babylon on a Normal sized continents map with 7 opponents. Regent difficulty. I've never won a 5 city challenge or a one city culture victory before.


4000BC:
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Here's my start location. There's wines right next to me, a cattle just outside my borders and I'm coastal and on a river. All in all a good start. Babylon will start with a temple as quickly as possible (at the expense of pop growth). I'll irrigate the bonus grassland just north of me for afterwards

3350BC: Build temple. Start a warrior.

3100BC: Map from minor tribe reveals decent second location. I like the fish and the gold, but it's not much of a settler farm. Good thing I don't need to do much expansion. Babylon switches to settler

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3000BC: Complete Mysticism. Begin Alphabet, aiming for Literature and GL

2800BC: Complete Settler. Begin Colossus

2630 BC: Ur founded. Begins Worker (10 turns). But our roaming warrior reveals monstrous amounts of jungle to the west and north. 5CC might become 2CC if I can't find any better sites.

2310BC: Master Alphabet. Begin Writing

2270BC: Barbarians appear. Ur changes from worker to warrior so we can protect Babylon and save the Colossus

2230BC: Ur builds warrior, starts on worker

2030BC: Ur builds worker, starts temple to access whales outside current borders (**Post game: this might have been a bad move. Another worker to help develop the land around my cities might have been a better plan**)

1725BC: Meet the Zulu. They’re about five techs up on me. No trades, as the Chinese are nearby and we want to know what they want/need first. Learn Writing. Begin Literature.

1625BC: Trade Alphabet and 40 gold to the Zulu for Masonry Then trade Writing for Iron Working and 27 gold. There's iron very close to Babylon. Start a war with China by burning Canton to the ground (it's undefended, and I judge that I can get some techs in a peace treaty). Cosmic justice prevails: Ur is pillaged by barbarians

1500BC: We find that Beijing is defended by spearmen, and two warriors don't seem best suited to attacking. We pillage some roads, taking away Chinese incense, and China gives us a worker, 14 gold, the wheel, Warrior Code and Pottery in exchange for peace

1475BC: Meet Egypt. Sell contact with the Chinese for 10gold. Complete the Colossus in Babylon. Begin building the Oracle.

1350BC: Complete Literature. Begin researching Philosophy, heading for a switch to Republic. (**Post Game:At this point, I'm not sure why I didn't switch to the Great Library. I wanted the Oracle for some reason, but the GL at 6 culture and 66.6shields/culture is clearly better**)

1250BC: Ur builds a temple, starts a settler

1150BC: Complete Philosophy. Begin Code of Laws.

1025BC: Ur builds settler, starts working on a Bowman.

975BC: Babylon finishes eighth in list of world’s largest countries.

900BC: Nineveh founded, immediately begins a Bowman (I’m planning to trigger a golden age in a war with Egypt). They've founded Byblos very close to a source of furs

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I'm confident I can pull off the same kind of hit 'n run I did on the Chinese. This normally works well for me in the early stages of Regent/Monarch level games.

800BC: Complete Code of Laws. Begin The Republic.

610BC: Babylon completes the Oracle. Begins a Swordsman for the war with Egpyt.

550BC: Babylon builds swordsman, begins library. Not the great library, as the library won't take very long and can build culture more quickly.

530BC: Buy horseback riding, mathematics and map making from the Zulu for 373 gold. Pop-rush a barracks in Ur to help with the war effort. (We're not at war yet. I know that the Egyptians are much better developed than the Chinese were earlier)

510BC: Ur begins a spearman

470BC: Babylon completes Library, starts The Great Library

410BC: Nineveh completes Bowman. Warriors upgraded to Swordsmen. Time for War

390BC: Golden Age begins as our bowman takes down a weakened Egyptian spearman. We burn down the offending town the next turn.

270BC: The Zulu beat us to the Great Library. We switch to the Great Lighthouse

90BC: Learn the Republic. Become a republic. Sadly, the French beat us to the Great Lighthouse. Get Construction and 700 gold from the Zulu for Republic so that I can build a colosseum with the shields

50BC: Babylon builds a colosseum

10AD: Our military is overstretched by the Egyptians. They've hit me with greater numbers than I've expected. Most of our time has been spent killing them as they try to cross the river south of where Byblos was. We settle for 6 gold and the new city of Byblos

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That picture doesn't show much. We should get good production from it, although it might struggle to grow, with no accessable water for irrigation.

50AD: Master Currency. Begin Polytheism

150AD: Master Polytheism. Free Feudalism. Begin Monotheism.

210AD: Zulu demand Feudalism. We refuse, they declare war. Zululand is somewhere north of me, meaning they have to come through the jungle and attack Ur. We'll be able to defend against a big attack without much, thanks to the river and hill bonuses we'll be getting.

320AD: Master Monotheism, begin Theology. Still no sign of the Zulu invasion yet. When they finally arrive, they're mostly impi with a few archers. No threat to pikemen and swords with a couple of catpults for support. My main problem will be actually killing the impi before they run off.

The zulu invasion force outnumbers us by about 8 to 1. We're not worried.

410AD: Great Leader produced on the defensive, as the Zulu batter us senseless without breaking through. There aren't even any scary moments.

I decide to build an army so we can get the Heroic Epic. We don't need the leader right now to rush anything (we're heading for the Sistine Chapel and then JS Bach, but we have Sun Tzu for a prebuild and don't need to rush)

460AD: Master Theology. Begin Education. Switch Babylon from Sun Tzu to Sistine Chapel

580AD: Master Education. Begin Astronomy. Complete Sistine Chapel. Begin Heroic Epic.

630AD: Another leader. We’ll save him up for Copernicus or Bach

660AD: Begin importing Egyptian ivory (20 turns for 80 gold; tiny countries get cheap deals. I'll be using this with various countries throughout the game)

680AD: Our swords army is destroyed my a mob of impi.

720AD: Complete Heroic Epic in Babylon, begin Cathedral. We take peace with the Zulu for contact with Japan and 85 gold. They have nothing else we can take, as they're too strong for me to counter attack successfully at this point.

740AD: Master Astronomy. Begin Music Theory. Rush Cathedral in Babylon. Begin Copernicus’ Observatory to help with the Science race. I'm keeping pace but I need something to tip me into a good lead

940AD: Complete Copernicus. Rush JS Bach with the leader

960AD: Master Banking. Begin Printing Press

1000AD: Babylon builds University, starts Bank

1010AD: Complete Printing Press, begin Democracy

1060AD: Babylon begins Sun Tzu as a prebuild for Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Theatre is one of the most important wonders of the game.

1120AD: Finish Democracy, begin Free Artistry. The Zulu build Sun Tzu. Get Invention from the Chinese for Printing Press and Music Theory. Babylon switches prebuild to Leonardo

1150AD: Egypt builds Leonardo, I buy Navigation and 20gpt from Egypt for Banking so I can continue my prebuild with Magellan. When will they stop doing this to me? I'm paying through the nose for techs just so I can maintain a prebuild.

1170AD: Exchange contacts and World Maps with the French, getting Monarchy and 2 gold in the process. This is the first time anyone from my continent has made contact with the other. Also get 40gpt from the Germans. Have to gift the Greeks as they have no gold and no techs, but at least it stops someone else from getting it off them.

1180AD: Finish Free Artistry. Switch Babylon to Shakespeare. Sell Democracy to Egypt for 10gpt and Gunpowder. Begin Chemistry

1210AD: Zulu declare war, despite the fact that the Egyptians are already beating the hell out of them. Egypt are clearly the world superpower. Watching their hordes of knights pour across my territory made me feel very exposed. I had been hoping the militaristic Zulu would check the Egyptians and slow them down, but it went the other way instead.

1230AD: Complete Shakespeare. Brilliant! Even without the Metropolis bonus, the culture is fantastic. We're progressing well towards our goal. Begin Magellan as a prebuild for Newton

1255AD: Complete Chemistry. Begin Physics.

1275AD: Egypt demands Free Artistry, World Map and 76 gold. I cave. They have about as many knights as I do population points, and Free Artistry is useless now anyway. I'm not happy about it, but that’s OK. I found my final city, Ashur, to steal Saltpeter from them.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! (OK, so Saltpeter isn't that good, but this is what it takes to make me feel like a big man.)

1285AD: Begin working on the Theory of Gravity

1310AD: White peace with the Zulu. We’re holding a marginal tech lead

1325AD: Master Theory of Gravity. Begin Magnetism. Babylon builds Newton’s University, begins Magellan as we're running out of stuff.

1365AD: Begin learning Metallurgy.

1395AD: Learn Metallurgy. The Industrial Era leads to free Nationalism! Begin Steam Power, heading for Scientific Method

1410AD: Babylon builds Magellan. Goes to Wealth as there isn’t much else (granary, courthouse, coastal fortress)

1430AD: Sell Nationalism to the rest of the world. It’s quite profitable, with the countries that have money.

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Those that don't are less beneficial. We also keep it from the Egyptians. They have little to offer, nobody likes them, and there's no point making them any more powerful.

1435AD: Babylon begins Smith’s Trading Company

1450AD: Complete Steam Power. Begin Medicine. Incredibly, our postage-stamp sized country has two sources of coal. Jungles are good for something, I suppose

1490AD: Master Medicine. Begin Electricity

1505AD: The French beat us to Smith's. We switch to Wall Street which finishes immediately due to overrun then the Military Academy

1530AD: We’re proclaimed the richest country in the world

1545AD: Complete Electricity, begin Scientific Method

1585AD: Complete Scientific Method, start industrialisation. Switch Babylon to Theory of Evolution

1615AD: Master Industrialisation, begin Replaceable Parts

1630AD: Complete the Theory of Evolution. Learn Replaceable Parts and Atomic Theory. Begin the corporation. Babylon begins a factory.

And we make an extremely lucky rubber find, leaving us nearly self-sufficient in strategic resources. I don't expect we'll get oil, aluminium and uranium in our borders too, but at this rate we won't need them (maybe oil, but we should be ok with infantry and artillery)

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1670AD: Complete The Corporation. Begin Electronics

1675AD: Babylon completes Factory, begins Universal Suffrage

1700AD: Our iron runs out. We trade some more from Bismarck for Scientific Method. We only need it to put in a few more rails, so we're probably paying over the odds. We're low on cash, though, and SM is not that valuable now we have ToE.

1715AD: Egypt builds Universal Suffrage, Babylon switches to the Intelligence Agency

1720AD: Babylon begins Military Academy

1740AD: Master the secrets of Electronics, begin researching Steel

1756AD: Babylon completes the Military Academy, begins the Hoover Dam

1764AD: Complete Steel, begin Refining. First pollution strike

1780AD: Master Combustion, begin researching Refining

Everything has been pretty straightforward up to now. We've been lucky with resources and I think we've balanced tech, military and construction well. But remember when I burned down Byblos, took the new Byblos, stole Cleo's saltpeter and generally was a thorn in Egypt's side? Because they sure do.

1788AD: Egypt declares war. I don't have a map pic of this, so I've cobbled something together in Paint. Yellow is Egypt, Red is Babylon, blue is the Sea. Black dots are my cities, green dots are the Egyptian troops. Some of them are just a few units, but there's at least half a dozen cavalry about to hit every city. The green square with the yellow dot in it, the one near Babylon, is a real cavalry SoD

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Our defences buckle, but somehow we hold out. Ur (top right) and Byblos (bottom right) are razed. Nineveh (far left) gets off lightly, but the Egyptians reposition dozens more cavalry for another attack. Ashur (centre left) takes a thorough battering, losing three of its four defenders but producing another great leader.

My entire focus now is on protecting Babylon. The rest of the cities are done for. There's no way I can protect them all, but I can hole up in my capital and cry with fear. I move all my troops out of the other two cities, draft a couple of infantry, sell everything that isn't nailed down and then leave the cities for the Egyptians to claim.

1790AD: Next step is to buy an ally. China is the only option, with the Zulu eliminated. It's expensive, nearly bankrupting us, but well worth it. Egyptian attacks on Babylon dry up over the next two turns. We have now lost our rubber, but riflemen are coming thick and fast. We'll use numbers if we can't use strength. Research is nearly stopped, a single specialist providing all our budget.

1792AD: China brings Japan into the war. Babylon completes a barracks. We're churning out artillery and riflemen as fast as we can.

Basically, I sit behind the walls in Babylon watching Egypt flatten China and hoping they'll cool off enough for me to negotiate peace soon.

1824AD: We steal two workers from Egypt when they stray near the border. We lose our only cavalry in the process, so it's not really worth it, but it makes me feel better.

1848AD: Espionage reveals Edfu is lightly defended.

8 infantry and 8 artillery set off to burn it down.

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If this goes wrong, we might well be in trouble. Babylon has a few conscript infantry left, and a slew of riflemen, but egypt is starting tanks. No time like the present.

1852-1854AD: The attack goes off with only one dead infantry.

The victorious army heads off to retake Nineveh.

1858AD: Nineveh is mine. I feel bad about shelling my own people, but finding some Egyptian resistors alleviates that. Next target: Byblos.

1862AD: A powerful Egyptian counterattack forces us onto the defensive, scuppering plans for an attack on Byblos. Cleo must have tanks coming out of her arse or something. We manage to blunt the attack with artillery and stacks of upgraded riflemen, but it's not easy and I'm scared the mighty RNG will smack me over the head. We have also been able to reconnect some rubber, at least for now. Egypt is too busy focusing on the cities to eliminate the rubber, which they could much more easily.

1870AD: We buy peace with Egypt for 300gold. They’re getting a bit too close to Babylon and we're losing infantry too fast. Plus the Japanese have made peace and China is getting whipped, and we can't fight on alone. Babylon is close to victory, running at over 90 cpt and all I need to do is mark time to the end.

1876AD: Bismarck threatens us to get territory map and 44 gold. We cave; his silks are too important to risk war, plus he might get the Egyptians to come back in and have another go.

1884AD: The city of Samaria is founded. Now we have oil (not that we can really use it, but at least nobody else gets to) and iron. Plus it feels like a big Up Yours to Cleopatra

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1900AD:

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Victory! Smiles and handshakes all round. Except for Cleopatra. I don't like her.

Finally, here are two shots of Babylon from the end of the game. I also finished with 99% literacy. One of my personal goals is always to have the highest literacy rates, so that's a nice touch.

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The histograph at the end showed Egypt with over half of the power. Babylon is barely even a dot. It was the greatest city in the world, though.

Great job of building up culture, holing up in Babylon, and regaining some momentum against Egypt. Would it be possible to post a map of your entire empire at the end of the game? Or are Babylon, Nineveh, and Samaria the only cities left?

I can only see two slight errors in strategy: first, building a Spearman in Ur in 510 BC as Babylon - might as well build Bowmen unless you're really close to the Feudalism upgrade, and second, starting research on Replaceable Parts in 1615 AD right before getting ToE - might as well have set research at 0% and built up cash a few turns.

Great win. The only thing left is the really improbable - try to conquer Egypt!

Quintillus said:

Great job of building up culture, holing up in Babylon, and regaining some momentum against Egypt. Would it be possible to post a map of your entire empire at the end of the game? Or are Babylon, Nineveh, and Samaria the only cities left?

Click to expand...

Didn't notice you'd posted this. Those were the only cities left.

Thanks for reading.

did better than i would manage, usually i give up if i get too much jungle since it wastes worker time to remove it