In the 6th century BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, wanted to honor his young wife, Amytis of Media, with magnificent gardens featuring a multitude of beautifully scented flowers, so he called on the most eminent architects in his kingdom to test their ingenuity and realize his vision of creating what would become one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
In Babylon, you take on the role of an eminent architect. Dig the quarry for the best materials, and use them wisely to build your gardens. At the end of the game, the player who unveils the most impressive design before the king will be declared the winner and crowned the greatest architect in the kingdom. Although Babylon is accessible to the whole family, it is also very popular with heavy gamers, due to a large number of optimization possibilities.
The game box, representing the quarry from which you will draw your construction materials, is placed in the center of the table. On your turn, take a Terrace tile of your choice from the quarry and receive, depending on its location, a variable number of pillars. Use these pillars to place your tile on your personal board and, if you can, beautify your garden with different decorative elements. Build your terraces to go from floor to floor and decorate them as much as possible. At the end of the game, each decorative element will give you victory points depending on the floor where it is located.
—description from the publisher
- Multiple strategic layers
- Interesting tile placement mechanics
- Unique gameplay elements
- City building
- Architectural tile placement
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- tile placement — Strategic placement of tiles with multiple layers and requirements
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- 71,000 attendees
- I was working at a booth that's insane Insanity
- This is my first RPG ever
References (from this video)
- Visually stunning, highly attractive table presence
- Accessible entry with crunchy spatial puzzles
- Expands well with additional cards and potential future expansions
- Potential analysis paralysis on early draft choices
- Replay variability depends on tile drafting; base game can feel similar over time
- Architectural construction and skyline-building
- Ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon; multi-level garden construction
- Abstract spatial puzzle with stacking and connection rules
- Abomination
- My Father's Work
- Dread
- Night Cage
- Werewolf
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- 3D spatial construction — place pillars, bridges, fountains, and statues to create multi-level platforms
- scoring by level and connections — points based on the level of features and how effectively you connect or bridge gaps
- tile drafting/placement — draft and place tiles to build layered garden structures on your own board
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's visually gorgeous game
- it's a really gorgeous game
- it's not a long game you know which I think is also fun
- I definitely wanted that game because it's so pretty
- the end of the game you do activate all the plague that's still there which is actually like a really nice kind of climax
- this is one of those games where it's like for as long as I've known Dan ... it's always looking for an excuse to play RTIS
- the artwork's so beautiful
References (from this video)
- impressive presence and components
- ambitious production
- very large footprint
- heavy weight may deter some players
- court intrigue and grandiose display
- ancient Babylon with grand production
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- heavy-weight Euro / area control — Bulky box with large components encourages deep strategy and heavy decision-making.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's almost Christmas time
- Monkey Palace is off the chain
- Babylon is wild
- Wednesday is our new game day
- We are going to play the hamster roll
References (from this video)
- Visually gorgeous and beautiful
- Deceptively crunchy gameplay
- Satisfying building and tower creation
- Unique multi-level stacking mechanics
- Engaging visual puzzle
- Fiddly with small pieces
- Can be fragile if pieces bumped
- Two-player game takes longer due to more rounds
- ancient Babylon
- garden construction
- city building
- Terraforming Mars
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- life is too short to worry about games that don't work very well
- all of these games are really really cool in various ways
- Rich and deep and complex
- phenomenal
- no surprise that Designer artist Ryan Locket