Since I finally finished a Babylon game, I figured I should write it down somewhere before I forget, try it again and wonder what I did last time. (I did get animal husbandry from the northwest hut, but I don't think it factors into the win, might have to run a 2nd game without huts to see), test shows that you can still win without animal husbandry, i just requires a lot of effort to make sure china can't use any food improvements or send out a settler and probably killing india
persia turn 84
Important Note about Babylon
This civ scenario is a crash course on microing a city and harassing/rushing your enemies, before going Hereditary Rule, you're going to stop growth at size 5 your happiness cap (unless circumstances make it so that you're neck and neck with china), AND move your citizens around to maximize production for the oracle, most likely the forested hill and the forested dye to get out the stonehenge and oracle fast, since angry citizens are -2 food dead weight and you have no way of making them happy until you become a monarch
Tech
Pottery -> Writing -> Mysticism -> Masonry -> Mediation -> Priesthood -> Animal Husbandry (not really required, but getting that sheep pen up is nice)->
Monarchy (oracle, unless you somehow can get it before persia spawns with it) ->
Code of Laws (via great merchant bulb via caste system from stonehenge if you can or just slog it out/hard tech it) merchant strat lets you instead go other techs after priesthood if you're into that
Babylon build order
3xWarrior (1 to support your initial warrior vs India, 1 to China, 1 to defend vs Hattuasa's chariot, don't be afraid to pull one back early to defend if Jerusalem doesn't flip to peace and send a warrior close to Babylon) -> Worker (should be at pop2, 1 turn before pop3 when this happens) -> Granary -> Stonehenge/Pyramid fallback -> Oracle (FINISH ON TURN 83 AT LATEST, PERSIA SPAWNS ON 84) -> walls and spam warriors
-You will have some down time between the 1st wonder and the oracle, get a warrior or 2 to support the China raid or protect yourself from an unlucky Greek chariot if he snags one on spawn and is hostile to you.
-You should be able to hit pop8 on Babylon after the Oracle
The India Problem
-India is the main threat for population, like China, India has food resources in his bfc, unlike china he has 2 more food resources compared to china, leaving India alone is making sure you can't achieve you historical goal
-Your starting warrior and the first warrior produced should be enough to kill the single warrior protecting Delhi, since he will most likely build a Fast Worker first (haven't seen them not do it yet), to make sure he doesn't switch to a warrior, don't war him unless your next move involves moving into his lands, your spawned warrior should spend the time it takes for the 2nd to reach the border to troll around the north for a barb to fight for xp (make sure the fight is as barb favored as possible i.e flatlands without a river crossing for you) for xp to tip the odds for the India fight and move back to meet up at the same turn. so you should send the warrior back after 2-3 turns of trolling the north
-Raze Delhi, unless you feel like you can handle 2nd city at 100% research and micro it so it doesn't eclipse Babylon in pop at the check turn
-India will make a worker most of the time first , meaning he only has 1 warrior, you should approach india in a way that one warrior ends up the desert sw of delhi to give maximum scare area to herd the worker into delhi to capture it.
Egypt?
Should be irrelevant, since he likes to get wonders and you're gonna get the wonders that matter, two wonders out cultures a holy city and a wonder, and since the ai always takes a state religion, if he gets a 2nd holy city won't give culture.
China?
Your veteran(s) from the India campaign should be walking towards China, after razing Delhi, the 3rd warrior that you pump out should be woodsman2 after fighting a barb or two on the way there, lucking out on an impossible fight nets you at least 5xp, since you're guaranteed a few wins vs barbs, two at the very least I think
-You don't have to fight the barbs for the promotion, but it does make it easier to capture and delete their civilians and evade their archers, that pig below beijing is suicide to pillage btw
-China tends to build settlers and workers, holding them back from an easy pop7/8 capital, capturing their workers and settlers when you can will force them to build replacements, holding their pop growth back, you can also fortify on the 3food wheat east of beijing if escorts are a problem.
Oracle
Very important, get monarchy with it, Persia spawns with monarchy, they will spawn on 84 and you didn't finish the oracle on turn 83 or earlier, you failed the goal.
Your Worker(s)
Very important, they die, you're screwed, they're going to cottage the floodplains on their downtime and quarry the stone, connect the wheat and finally the marble when masonry goes up before priesthood is researched (should complete the marble quarry a turn or when priesthood completes), India's worker should be able to run back and support him and make improving the wheat, chariots sometimes spawn on the hidden desert east of the wheat mountain while you're improving the wheat and they will kill them unless you have 2-3 warriors just sitting on them.
The Winning Stretch
With Monarchy under your belt you must revolt to Hereditary Rule and caste system/slavery and go all in on food, you should hit pop8 by the time Persia spawns
-Depending on if you want to play it safe or you feel lucky, slavery lets you whip out a library and use the % boost (and scientists if your cottages are pillaged by the barbs or persians) to inch closer to code of laws, caste system to use the 100% gp boost from a golden age to DISREGARD FOOD, SPAM MERCHANTS to bulb code of laws from a Great Merchant
If you feel really lucky, you can rush for the merchant right after the pop uhv fires instead of waiting for the golden age, if you're lucky, you'll pop it instead of the prophet and win the instant the culture uhv turn rolls around.
Persia
They will spawn and they will try and kill you, but your walls, culture and fortified warriors will make sure your defensive strength will be comparable to both immortals and chariots, and they're more spamable vs both, just hunker down and keep building warriors or fit in a barracks if they're passive somehow, since during the home stretch barbarians from the ruins of hattusa flooded into the Mesopotamia at the same time persia was bearing down on me, but my warriors held with the walls for my merchant to spawn and bulb code of laws for the win
Concluding Notes
-You need 2 wonders to beat egypt's tendency to get wonders, stonehenge will let you attempt the merchant fast win, pyramid is the consolation prize, since sometime egypt will get it first since you had to rush writing, but won't beat you to the pyramids since you have more innate production in a head-on race
-There are some room for errors here and there, a turn or two missed by your warriors or forgetting to cancel the ongoing improvements by your worker for the wheat/masonry pop won't kill you
-Egypt and Greece are non contenders for population so far, only threat is competing for the big 3 wonders from Egypt
-What you get from that one village to china will sometimes just win the game for you, the 2nd one above to cotton is too out of the way, do it if you get a scout from the 1st one
-China will have the pigs improved, but don't worry about it, just pillage the wheat of to the east and watch for workers trying to rebuild it, your woodsman 2 will cap it if you have one
-China is the most luck based part of this run, he will most like pump settlers at pop6, it doesn't hurt to rush pop8 to make sure a tie doesn't happen and capture civilians to force replacements
-There was a bug where the game added all the pops of a civ's cities during 1 run, but it doesn't seem to register during every other one, it seems to compare the biggest city of each civ, so your main problem is beijing
Edits have been made to make this strategy a lot less luck based, probably will run a handful of more tests later before finalizing and cleaning it up, maybe pictures if I can figure that out.
As of 12/21/20, this strategy has worked out every time so far for me, even without super optimized movements, tell me if something doesn't work out so I can adjust it or specify some moves.
persia turn 84
Important Note about Babylon
This civ scenario is a crash course on microing a city and harassing/rushing your enemies, before going Hereditary Rule, you're going to stop growth at size 5 your happiness cap (unless circumstances make it so that you're neck and neck with china), AND move your citizens around to maximize production for the oracle, most likely the forested hill and the forested dye to get out the stonehenge and oracle fast, since angry citizens are -2 food dead weight and you have no way of making them happy until you become a monarch
Tech
Pottery -> Writing -> Mysticism -> Masonry -> Mediation -> Priesthood -> Animal Husbandry (not really required, but getting that sheep pen up is nice)->
Monarchy (oracle, unless you somehow can get it before persia spawns with it) ->
Code of Laws (via great merchant bulb via caste system from stonehenge if you can or just slog it out/hard tech it) merchant strat lets you instead go other techs after priesthood if you're into that
Babylon build order
3xWarrior (1 to support your initial warrior vs India, 1 to China, 1 to defend vs Hattuasa's chariot, don't be afraid to pull one back early to defend if Jerusalem doesn't flip to peace and send a warrior close to Babylon) -> Worker (should be at pop2, 1 turn before pop3 when this happens) -> Granary -> Stonehenge/Pyramid fallback -> Oracle (FINISH ON TURN 83 AT LATEST, PERSIA SPAWNS ON 84) -> walls and spam warriors
-You will have some down time between the 1st wonder and the oracle, get a warrior or 2 to support the China raid or protect yourself from an unlucky Greek chariot if he snags one on spawn and is hostile to you.
-You should be able to hit pop8 on Babylon after the Oracle
The India Problem
-India is the main threat for population, like China, India has food resources in his bfc, unlike china he has 2 more food resources compared to china, leaving India alone is making sure you can't achieve you historical goal
-Your starting warrior and the first warrior produced should be enough to kill the single warrior protecting Delhi, since he will most likely build a Fast Worker first (haven't seen them not do it yet), to make sure he doesn't switch to a warrior, don't war him unless your next move involves moving into his lands, your spawned warrior should spend the time it takes for the 2nd to reach the border to troll around the north for a barb to fight for xp (make sure the fight is as barb favored as possible i.e flatlands without a river crossing for you) for xp to tip the odds for the India fight and move back to meet up at the same turn. so you should send the warrior back after 2-3 turns of trolling the north
-Raze Delhi, unless you feel like you can handle 2nd city at 100% research and micro it so it doesn't eclipse Babylon in pop at the check turn
-India will make a worker most of the time first , meaning he only has 1 warrior, you should approach india in a way that one warrior ends up the desert sw of delhi to give maximum scare area to herd the worker into delhi to capture it.
Egypt?
Should be irrelevant, since he likes to get wonders and you're gonna get the wonders that matter, two wonders out cultures a holy city and a wonder, and since the ai always takes a state religion, if he gets a 2nd holy city won't give culture.
China?
Your veteran(s) from the India campaign should be walking towards China, after razing Delhi, the 3rd warrior that you pump out should be woodsman2 after fighting a barb or two on the way there, lucking out on an impossible fight nets you at least 5xp, since you're guaranteed a few wins vs barbs, two at the very least I think
-You don't have to fight the barbs for the promotion, but it does make it easier to capture and delete their civilians and evade their archers, that pig below beijing is suicide to pillage btw
-China tends to build settlers and workers, holding them back from an easy pop7/8 capital, capturing their workers and settlers when you can will force them to build replacements, holding their pop growth back, you can also fortify on the 3food wheat east of beijing if escorts are a problem.
Oracle
Very important, get monarchy with it, Persia spawns with monarchy, they will spawn on 84 and you didn't finish the oracle on turn 83 or earlier, you failed the goal.
Your Worker(s)
Very important, they die, you're screwed, they're going to cottage the floodplains on their downtime and quarry the stone, connect the wheat and finally the marble when masonry goes up before priesthood is researched (should complete the marble quarry a turn or when priesthood completes), India's worker should be able to run back and support him and make improving the wheat, chariots sometimes spawn on the hidden desert east of the wheat mountain while you're improving the wheat and they will kill them unless you have 2-3 warriors just sitting on them.
The Winning Stretch
With Monarchy under your belt you must revolt to Hereditary Rule and caste system/slavery and go all in on food, you should hit pop8 by the time Persia spawns
-Depending on if you want to play it safe or you feel lucky, slavery lets you whip out a library and use the % boost (and scientists if your cottages are pillaged by the barbs or persians) to inch closer to code of laws, caste system to use the 100% gp boost from a golden age to DISREGARD FOOD, SPAM MERCHANTS to bulb code of laws from a Great Merchant
If you feel really lucky, you can rush for the merchant right after the pop uhv fires instead of waiting for the golden age, if you're lucky, you'll pop it instead of the prophet and win the instant the culture uhv turn rolls around.
Persia
They will spawn and they will try and kill you, but your walls, culture and fortified warriors will make sure your defensive strength will be comparable to both immortals and chariots, and they're more spamable vs both, just hunker down and keep building warriors or fit in a barracks if they're passive somehow, since during the home stretch barbarians from the ruins of hattusa flooded into the Mesopotamia at the same time persia was bearing down on me, but my warriors held with the walls for my merchant to spawn and bulb code of laws for the win
Concluding Notes
-You need 2 wonders to beat egypt's tendency to get wonders, stonehenge will let you attempt the merchant fast win, pyramid is the consolation prize, since sometime egypt will get it first since you had to rush writing, but won't beat you to the pyramids since you have more innate production in a head-on race
-There are some room for errors here and there, a turn or two missed by your warriors or forgetting to cancel the ongoing improvements by your worker for the wheat/masonry pop won't kill you
-Egypt and Greece are non contenders for population so far, only threat is competing for the big 3 wonders from Egypt
-What you get from that one village to china will sometimes just win the game for you, the 2nd one above to cotton is too out of the way, do it if you get a scout from the 1st one
-China will have the pigs improved, but don't worry about it, just pillage the wheat of to the east and watch for workers trying to rebuild it, your woodsman 2 will cap it if you have one
-China is the most luck based part of this run, he will most like pump settlers at pop6, it doesn't hurt to rush pop8 to make sure a tie doesn't happen and capture civilians to force replacements
-There was a bug where the game added all the pops of a civ's cities during 1 run, but it doesn't seem to register during every other one, it seems to compare the biggest city of each civ, so your main problem is beijing
Edits have been made to make this strategy a lot less luck based, probably will run a handful of more tests later before finalizing and cleaning it up, maybe pictures if I can figure that out.
As of 12/21/20, this strategy has worked out every time so far for me, even without super optimized movements, tell me if something doesn't work out so I can adjust it or specify some moves.
Last edited:
