These guides are designed to help players who are new to Civ but still interested in Vox Populi, familiar with Civ but new to Vox Populi, or even those well versed in Vox Populi who just want to see if there's anything they didn't know about a particular civilization. I am actually a big fan of Zigzagzigal's Civ guide series, and it really helped me learn a lot about the game, and I wanted to bring a similar experience for fans of the Vox Populi or Community Balance Patch modpack. For those interested in the modpack it can be downloaded here[forums.civfanatics.com]

Anyways, without further ado, onto the Babylonians!

Before I go into depth with this guide, here's an explanation of some terminology I'll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
UA - Unique Ability - the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single civilization
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by militaristic City-States when allied.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

Babylon has no start bias. None of their uniques really care about terrain, so that's fine


Receive a free great scientist when you discover Writing

Great Scientists are earned 50% faster

Gold investments in buildings reduce their production cost by an additional 15%




A ranged unit



Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (8 instead of 6)
  
• Higher ranged strength (10 instead of 9)
  
• Obsoletes at Machinery rather than Currency

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +33% ranged combat strength when attacking wounded units(Marksmanship)

Positive Changes

• +3 & +8 (Up from +0 and +6 respectively)
  
• 3 Great Scientist points
  
• City has +150hp (up from +125)
  
• Great Scientists give 5% more science when used to discover a new technology

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the Babylonian uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking


Bowmen can have some application on offense, but are generally much better as a defensive unit. Combined with their UB this gives Babylon one of the strongest defenses in the game
Babylon pretty much has no benefit to culture or tourism
Science is Babylon's bread and butter, with their UA and UB giving solid science. Their UA also indirectly gives a decent production boost
While Babylon's UA let's their gold go a bit farther, they otherwise have no bonuses to generate it, or to diplomacy
Finally, while lacking any religious bonuses Babylon is in a decent position to invest in shrines early

Babylon has one of the strictest recommended opening tech paths in the game (only really outdone by the Maya in my opinion). As Babylon, you go straight for writing, no detours. Doing so will yield you massive rewards however, with a free great scientist.


My science after placing the academy

Use you scientist to place down an academy immediately, and you'll find your science nearly doubles. While going straight for writing may initially put you behind other civs in tech, this will rapidly catapult you to the top.



In the long run that one scientist won't be enough to stay on top, however, you will be getting tons more great scientists as Babylon, as you generate them 50% faster. For pretty much every other civ, the general rule of thumb for great scientists is to place down academies until you get research labs, then you switch to using their instant yield of science. As Babylon you should probably still roughly hold to this belief, however you might find yourself at some points with just too many academies that none of your cities can really efficiently work more, so if you ever find yourself at that point before research labs, feel free to pop your scientist for instant yields, you'll get more quickly enough.


A 3 turn building that would've normally taken 8

The less important but still definitely useful part of Babylon's UA is that investing gold in a building reduces it's production by 65% instead of just 50%. 15% may no sound like a ton, but this is likely to shave off 2-3 turns more at least off of buildings that are relatively expensive to your current production, which is what you should be investing in anyways. Babylon doesn't have fantastic gold, so you will still want to use this sparingly, but it can be very useful to get a new/low production city up quickly or to get an important building up and running fast.

Bowman, Walls of Babylon, Ingenuity, either someone in ancient Babylon or someone at Firaxis really needs to get better at naming things

Beelining your way to writing would leave most civs fairly vulnerable. Not so for Babylon, as on the way they get the Bowman. They have a higher combat strength then normal Archers, making them stronger then a warrior. They also hit harder too, making sure that they can handle most things in the ancient and much of the classical



If the Bowman was just a stronger archer it would already do its job well, but it is so much more, with one simple promotion. +33% damage against wounded units, that carries over on upgrade. This effectively means Bowman hit with 13.3 strength against any unit missing even 1 health(A.K.A nearly every unit that will exist), which is just 1 point shy of a composite bowmen. They are a terrifying force that can shred nearly any unit in the ancient and classical. It may even be worth fighting an offensive war against a nearby neighbor if you can build up the force for it.


+33% ranged combat strength when attacking wounded units(Marksmanship)

While they upgrade well into composite bowman, and you should absolutely get composite bowmen tech asap, they are still fairly weak against medieval era units. Rushing Machinery for Crossbowman might not be a bad idea.

What just cause they're called the "Walls of Babylon" suddenly makes them special? Fine, let me call it the "Walls of America" then, see how you like it

The Walls of Babylon speak to the civ's two major strengths, science and defense. Defensively it's pretty simple, the Walls of Babylon give more city strength and hp then the standard walls. Walls already make it significantly harder for ancient and classical units to take a city. Walls of Babylon crank that up a notch. Even in the later game, while the extra city strength won't be a major factor, the extra hp will actually probably let the city take an extra hit or two, which can save it from an otherwise certain death.


At this point I believe I had 8 cities with the Walls of Babylon. Between that and all my academies, a great scientist instant yield was about 60% of a early renaissance tech

The Walls of Babylon give 3 scientist points, meaning you'll be generating them everywhere, very rapidly, even if you weren't generating them 50% faster. What is arguably more important is that for every Walls of Babylon you build, your Great Scientists give 5% more science when you use them for an instant yield of science. You still don't want to use them for this until later in the game, but it does encourage you to go somewhat wide. Regardless, this makes the massive amount of scientists you'll have later on even more busted. You practically won't even notice the Modern and Atomic eras with how fast you can burst through them.

Terrain/resource specific pantheons are not listed here unless they have some other synergy with a civ's uniques, however they can often be a great choice if the terrain/resources you start with favors them

Goddess of Wisdom: Gets your science going fast early, getting you to writing faster. Just as importantly, it also gets you started early generating great scientist points

Goddess of Renewal: If you have a lot of jungle/forest, this can rapidly speed up the path to writing


Council of Elders: A great way to boost science further, and also production, which you otherwise lack

Ceremonial Burial: You'll be getting tons of scientists, so this will be a good amount of yields


Cathedrals: A great boost to your income so you can invest more into buildings

Synagogues: More production and science, exactly what you want

Gurukulam: This will result in quite a lot of faith, especially early on


Universalism: Science, production, and gold. Literally all Babylon wants

Sacred Calendar: More great people, plus a bit of gold on top, can't complain

Prophecy: Babylon can often research techs with wonders that they can't build yet due to not having enough social policies. This helps get around that


Divine Teachings: The best reformation belief for any science civ

Inspired Works: You'll have a boatload of academies around, might as well make them a bit better

Babylon should start with Progress to help them beeline writing faster. Fealty should be next as it gives the best general bonuses of the 3 medieval trees, then you should finish with Rationalism to increase your science further


Opener: If at all possible, try to avoid growing your capital much before you get this, you'll get more science that way. The culture you immediately get from this will likely almost be enough for the next policy too

Liberty: If you don't have any worker techs yet, it might be a good idea to save this for later, otherwise this makes sure you're improving stuff ASAP

Organization: Faster workers, settlers, and even great people all help infrastructure get built just a little bit faster

Expertise: Faster building construction is great, especially in the early game where production might be sparse.

Fraternity: The science and food are both pretty welcome

Equality: Happiness shouldn't be a big problem for Babylon, but it doesn't hurt to be safe

Finisher: This should be a good bit of gold, which is important to invest into buildings


Opener: Monasteries are a solid building, and the cheaper faith building purchases are nice

Nobility: Castles are great buildings, now they are even better

Divine Right: More happiness, more culture for having happiness

Serfdom: A little bit of culture and production, plus much better internal trade routes to enhance growth even more.

Burghers: More production and a bit less unhappiness.

Organized Religion: Even if you didn't found a religion, the extra faith is nice to purchase great people with later on.

Finisher: Just get someone to hard convert you or keep your own religion strong and enjoy some extra yields


Opener: Little bit of science and a small bit of production too. Happiness should become an issue of the past for you as well if it wasn't already. Grow to your heart's content

Scientific Revolution: Observatories will net a good bit of science even without any mountains, so build them everywhere

Empiricism: Helps make sure other civs won't leech off your science lead.

Rights of Man: A bit of extra yields across the empire, not too shabby

Enlightenment: Postponing this as long as possible means you're getting a more expensive tech for free.

Free Thought: Extra science from Great Scientists is always good, especially given how many you'll have

Finisher: Because you needed more great scientists yeah?

As a relatively isolationist science civ, Order will serve Babylon best


Communism: Most civs want Communism for the wonder production, but you're here for the cheaper gold cost of building investment. Wonder production is good too though.

Hero of the People: Get your scientists(and more) even faster then you already are. Plus a free great person for whatever need, I would recommend an engineer.

Peace, Land, Bread: Growth, money and happiness, who can say no?


Academy of Sciences: Free Research Labs possibly before you have them researched will help push your science up like crazy

Five Year Plan: This is a crazy boost to your production, so go crazy with it.


Spaceflight Pioneers: Save every engineer you get for when you can build spaceships and win the game almost instantly.

Temple of Artemis: Will make getting up your Bowman army a lot more efficient


Great Library: You are beelining writing after all, so you've got an ok shot at this

Hanging Gardens: Can't get great scientists if you aren't working specialist slots, and you can't work specialist slots without population, so get more of that

Oracle: Almost a free tech, almost a free policy, definitely a great wonder


Forbidden Palace(Progress Only): Most progress civs don't super care about this wonder, but you certainly do, cheaper purchases synergizes great with more efficient investing


Leaning Tower of Pisa: More great people is great, you'll be spreading academies everywhere

Porcelain Tower: Put this in your biggest city and you'll get a nice science bump

Red Fort(Fealty Only): Makes one city near unconquerable, at least for a long time


Neuschwanstein: Might be hard to build due to terrain requirements, but this will give some great yields if you can manage it

Soho Foundry: Can't say no to some extra production


Empire State Building: More gold to invest in more buildings

Kremlin(Order Only): Free social policy is all you really care about, but that's still worth building this for


Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): A bit more science but more importantly makes it harder for others to leech off your tech lead


CERN: Two free techs to finish out the tech tree, you should be able to win the game soon after that

Great Firewall: Makes it pretty much impossible to leech off your tech lead

Hubble Space Telescope: Should help clean up the tech tree AND build more spaceship parts. An essential wonder for any science civ

Babylon is a very simple civ with strengths to prevent most shortcomings of a science game. However that isn't to say mistakes can't happen


The earlier you get your free great scientist the faster you can start blitzing through the tech tree. There's no reason not to go straight for writing


The Walls of Babylon give a decent amount more defense then walls, which already do defense quite well, however without a decent army your cities will still fall. The Bowman is perfect for this job so don't neglect them. Also, later on you will still need castles and other defensive buildings as units get stronger.


Bowmen are a great unit, and upgrade well throughout the game, however you don't have to use only them. Mixing in some melee units into your army composition will help keep your Bowmen more protected, and melee units will make better spotters as they can take more punishment then a ranged unit can.


Even early on, the amount of science a Babylonian Great Scientist can give is staggering, but even still, the value an academy gives is likely better until around the late industrial/early modern. Avoid the temptation

Babylon really only has two major strengths, however they complement each other perfectly. Strong early defense allows you to build up infrastructure, which allows you to get more science which gets you units and defense buildings early which gives you a better defense etc. However, Babylon is not unbreakable


Babylon is going to beeline writing and they are going to get a free great scientist, there isn't a ton you can do to stop that. However, it does have a certain effect on the Babylonian early game that you can maybe exploit. Babylon gets no benefit until they get writing, and since they are going to beeline writing, it means they won't be getting any military or defensive techs until then. Once they get their academy online they will rapidly get them of course, but there is a small window between where Babylon has gotten or is about to get writing and when they get construction and mathematics where you should be able to build up a military force and strike. If you are incredibly fortunate you might be able to full on kill their great scientist before it can place, but even pillaging the academy will kill Babylon's early game momentum. If you can capture their city with the academy (most likely their capital) you can even take the bonus for yourself and rapidly push ahead.


Defensively the Walls of Babylon are strong, but so are regular walls. If you have a big enough army and can beat Babylon's army, it is only a matter of time just like with regular walls.

The Walls of Babylon do also provide Babylon with a good bit more science though, but only if they can actually expand to a decent amount of cities. If you find Babylon early enough, try to forward settle them and block off their further expansion


Bowmen are one of the strongest uniques in the ancient era, as they are just stronger then pretty much every other unit in the era. They even hold up well in the classical. However there is one very important exception to this. Swordsman. Between their high combat strength and having Discipline Bowmen will struggle to take them down. Use Horsemen to cut off a Bowmen's escape and move your swordsman up while the Bowman is trapped. Flanking bonuses might allow horsemen to kill the Bowman outright but if not the Swordsman can easily destroy it. Later on, mounted units will be the best option though, knights shred composite bowmen and will even do well against crossbowmen. Just try your best to avoid getting into the line of fire of too many bowmen, or at least be ready to accept that killing one Bowmen will likely be a suicide mission if they have any backup


Early-Game Warmongers: Try your best to attack before they get their UB and UU and they'll be easy pickings. If that doesn't work out, either bring swordsman, or probably wait till later to attack

Mid-Game Warmongers: Knights will be very effective against Babylon's ranged army. Make sure to bring a good amount of siege too and Babylon shouldn't be too bad

Late-Game Warmongers: Babylon is going to be very difficult to fight at this point in the game, almost certainly being ahead of almost everyone in tech, so they will be up to date on units and defensive buildings. Air units and artillery can mostly counter Babylon's ranged army, but just be prepared for a fight.

Scientific Players: Babylon has great early game science and keeps solid momentum for the rest of the game. If you find Babylon in the early game I would recommend conquering them, as that early academy will be a massive benefit to your cause. Otherwise, just hope your science bonuses are good enough to keep pace and that your production is strong enough to beat them in spaceship parts.

Diplomatic Players: Embargoing Babylon will help a lot since the less gold they have the less they can invest. Arts Funding doesn't hurt Babylon as much for scientists as they'll have already gotten plenty by the time you can pass this, however it does hurt their engineers which are important.

Cultural Players: Babylon should provide little direct competition, but you also provide little direct competition to them. Just try your best to keep to the other strategies above.

These guide cover every civ in the game, and can be used as a quick reference

• Civ Summaries

• America (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Assyria (Science/Domination)
  
• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Aztecs (Domination/Science)
  
• Brazil (Culture)
  
• Byzantium (All)
  
• Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• The Celts (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• China (Domination/Culture)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• Egypt (Culture)
  
• England (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• Ethiopia (Science)
  
• France (Domination/Culture)
  
• Germany (Diplomacy/Science)
  
• Greece (Domination/Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Huns (Domination)
  
• The Inca (Science/Domination)
  
• India (Science/Culture)
  
• Indonesia (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• The Iroquois (Domination)
  
• Japan (Domination/Culture)
  
• Korea (Science/Domination)
  
• The Maya (Science/Domination)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Morocco (Culture/Diplomacy)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination)
  
• The Ottomans (Domination/Science)
  
• Persia(Domination/Culture)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Rome (Domination/Science)
  
• Russia (Science/Domination)
  
• The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Domination/Culture)
  
• Sweden (Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomacy/Culture/Domination)
  
• The Zulus (Domination)