On Civilization VI’s Babylon DLC Pack

Folks, I’m going to start this article off by readily admitting that I seem to have fallen severely behind schedule. Keiran informed me yesterday morning that Firaxis announced that they are finalizing preparations to release the penultimate piece of downloadable content within Civilization VI’s New Frontier Pass by the end of this month. Afterward, I truly realized just how much time has passed since my most recent editorial on the DLC contained within that season pass.

To that end, I now find myself scrambling to catch up on my sworn duty to publish my thoughts on each DLC pack in a relatively timely manner. Despite my lack of time management skills, I promise you that I will do November’s major piece of new content justice to the absolute best of my ability today. Without further ado, let’s get directly to the details, shall we?

As is customary for all major (that is, paid) downloadable content packs which fall under the banner of the New Frontier Pass, this past November’s DLC introduced a new playable Civilization. It also added a unique leader who assumes the helm of that Civ, and a new optional game mode to shake up what would otherwise be normal gameplay. Just as I have done for every past piece of DLC in the New Frontier Pass, I’ll discuss both of these freshly-introduced aspects in detail.

The new Civ takes the form of Babylon, and its leader is none other than Hammurabi. In my news report that was published shortly before the identity of Babylon’s leader was revealed, I mentioned that one of Civilization VI’s lead developers stated in a “first look” video that Babylon would soon be “blinding you with Science.” Well, everything that Babylon and Hammurabi bring to the metaphorical table in terms of their respective unique abilities certainly cements that idea in place.

Babylon’s unique ability that isn’t tied to having Hammurabi as its leader is called “Enuma Anu Enlil.” This ability’s effect dictates that whenever Babylon triggers the Eureka for any technology, that technology will be fully and immediately unlocked as opposed to having the Eureka simply contribute toward the process of researching the tech in question. As an example of how this works, Babylon will immediately unlock Archery after killing an enemy unit with a Slinger. Normally that would merely knock a few turns off of the time it would ordinarily take to research that tech.

This ability might sound remarkably powerful. In my experience, I would agree more often than not, especially if I wind up with the ability to trigger several Eureka moments in rapid succession. However, the “Enuma Anu Enlil” passive trait has a second aspect to it which serves to temper Babylon’s scientific advancement. You see, this ability also dictates that Babylon’s normal Science per turn generation is permanently reduced by half.

Due to this, no matter how many fully-furnished Campus districts you construct in your empire, you’re going to need to take advantage of as many Eurekas as you possibly can if you want to avoid falling behind your peers scientifically. This is a huge reason why Great Scientists who can instantly trigger Eureka moments for you will prove to be your best friends when playing as Babylon. I would, therefore, strongly advise that you focus heavily on generating Great Scientist points whenever possible via Government Policies.

Of course, that isn’t even mentioning the fact that you can also outright purchase Great Scientists with Gold and/or Faith whenever the opportunity arises. Since this is the case, I would additionally suggest that you strive to build Wonders like the Oracle to help in this endeavor. That’s especially relevant if you find yourself generating more Faith than you can effectively spend at any given point. Establishing Research Alliances with other friendly Civs will also go a long way toward helping you keep up on your scientific research, as you might expect.

Moving on, let us briefly discuss Hammurabi’s leader-specific passive ability. This trait is known as “Ninu Ilu Sirum.” As I spent time playing as Babylon before I began writing this article, I realized that it’s probably for the best that I’m not covering this DLC in video format because I probably wouldn’t be able to correctly pronounce these abilities. In any case, this ability decrees that whenever Babylon constructs a specialty District for the first time, that District’s lowest-cost building will automatically be added there.

For example, Babylon’s first Campus will automatically receive a Library as soon as the district is built. I wish to emphasize that specific facet of this ability in an effort to prevent you from making the same mistake I did when I first played as Babylon. Specifically, I found myself wondering why I only received one free Library.

That brings me to the rest of the Babylonian Empire’s unique offerings, which take the form of a combat unit and a building. The former of these is known as the Sabum Kibittum. This is an Ancient Era melee unit which boasts significantly elevated combat strength against all Light Cavalry and Heavy Cavalry units. It also has 3 Movement and a sight range equal to that. Babylon’s unique building is called the Palgum, which serves to replace the Water Mill and provides bonus Housing and Production in doing so.

Although the Sabum Kibittum is an Ancient Era unit and thus could potentially not be useful for very long, I can easily imagine its additional combat strength against both types of cavalry units coming in quite handy in the early game against certain Civs who tend to focus on that sort of thing. Your best match-ups in this regard, I would think, are Civs like Mongolia and Byzantium. The former of these two has the potential to essentially live or die based on its cavalry units, and the latter can start to amass its unique Heavy Cavalry unit a couple of eras into the game.

Of course, despite the fact that your Sabum Kibittum might not be useful for the entire game due to their status as an Ancient Era unique unit, by no means do you strictly need to replace them as soon as the Ancient Era ends. You might find that keeping them around as long as you can works to your advantage, especially if your territory is barren of resources like Iron or Niter that would otherwise enable you to build more modern melee units. Just bear in mind that you should probably upgrade them by the time your enemies have access to Tanks, unless you want them to be obliterated.

At this point, I’d like to move on from discussing Babylon so that I may provide a monologue about this DLC pack’s new optional game mode. As you might imagine, this mode can be toggled on alongside every other new game mode introduced in the New Frontier Pass thus far. Other added examples are Apocalypse Mode, Secret Societies Mode, and Dramatic Ages Mode. These are great if you want to shake up your next game of Civ VI to its very core.

This time around, the newest optional game mode is entitled “Heroes and Legends Mode.” Its primary attraction comes in the fact that it allows you to recruit any of twelve heroes from various cultures and mythologies and use their mythical abilities to your Civilization’s advantage. To name a few examples, the three heroes available with this mode upon whom I can’t help but focus are Hercules, King Arthur, and Mulan. As you might imagine, two-thirds of this trio would likely prove quite handy should you desire to go from zero to hero, or perhaps wish to get down to business to defeat the Huns; even though the Huns haven’t been playable since Civilization V.

Obligatory Disney jokes aside, each hero you can recruit has their own unique abilities that can greatly benefit your empire when used effectively and in as timely a manner as possible. For example, Hercules is exceptionally powerful in combat as a melee unit, though he cannot earn unit experience or promotions. One of his three unique traits allows him to instantly complete any specialty District in your territory that is currently under construction.

On the same token, another of Hercules’ traits allows him to unleash his godly rage upon a District in enemy territory, thus destroying all buildings present in that district and pillaging it. Of course, just because you were the first to recruit a hero certainly doesn’t mean you can keep them around forever or use their unique abilities infinitely without incurring any cost. To continue using Hercules as an example, he has a total of six charges of both of his District-related abilities. Having him complete construction of a District in your domain costs two of these charges, whereas sending him to demolish an enemy District costs one charge.

Heroes also have specific Lifespans, which are expressed as a set number of turns. Once that number of turns has passed, the hero will expire and must be recalled by the Civilization that originally recruited them by spending increasing amounts of Faith. This is why I mentioned earlier that you should ideally strive to take advantage of each hero you recruit in a timely manner, so that you can get the most benefit out of them before their Lifespan reaches its end.

This also ties into the idea that one of Civilization VI’s developers mentioned while revealing this DLC pack: the concept that these heroes are “like Great People on steroids, if Great People could be recalled and reborn to be used again and again.” Heroes can be discovered and recruited in a number of ways such as by visiting a tribal village, discovering a natural wonder or new continent, sending an envoy to a City-State, or by becoming Suzerain of a City-State for the first time. Once a hero is discovered, any city with a Monument can perform a Devotion to that hero, thus recruiting them to the first Civ to complete this action.

Well, there you have it, my friends! I hope my thoughts on the fourth major piece of DLC in Civilization VI’s New Frontier Pass have proven useful to you if you’re on the fence about buying all or part of the season pass. As I alluded to at the beginning of this article, Firaxis recently announced that this month’s new major DLC is currently scheduled to release sometime on Thursday, January 28th, 2021. You can rest assured that I’ll share my thoughts on that DLC as well once I’ve spent some quality time with it. In the meantime, if anyone needs me, I can be found taking one more turn!