Total War: Pharaoh Babylon

Total War: Pharaoh Babylon
Name:	Babylon
From Game:	Total War: Pharaoh
Culture:	Babylonian
Playable:	Yes

Babylon is a playable faction in Total War Pharaoh Dynasties.

Overview

When Hammurabi ruled Babylon, he built an empire. After his death, Babylon declined and four centuries ago, the city was sacked by the Hittites. Assyria was once controlled by Babylon, but Assyria has become major power in Mesopotamia. Now, Adad-Shuma-Usur rules the remnant of the Babylonian empire, and Babylon is at war with the Qingu kingdom to the north west.

Adad-Shuma-Usur, king of Babylon

Starting Position

At the start of the campaign, Adad-Shuma-Usur controls two regions - the major city of Babylon and a minor settlement to the east. Babylon is unusual, as it is a one-city province (it is the only city in the province of Kan-Digirak), and because it has more than the usual number of building slots (Babylon has 10). Your starting regions are near the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which provide fast movement and good sources of food from farming and fishing. Babylon's starting regions provide food and wood, but not stone, bronze or gold.

As well as your limited resources at the start of the campaign, the nearest settlement owened by your initial enemy is a major, walled city. The faction units which you can recruit at the start are poorly trained, so they are not well-suited to the task of taking a walled city.

Babylon is fairly close to the eastern edge of the campaign map, so expanding east to the map edge could be useful, allowing you to focus on defending your western border.

Strategies for Babylon

Adad-Shuma-Usur is somewhat similar to Seti - the armies of both factions tend to rely on quantity rather than quality. The units of Babylon's faction roster which are available the early campaign - the Siluhu - have poor morale, light armour and are not skilled - their advantages are that they are cheap and each unit is larger than the average size. Also, when you have elite taskmaster units, they buff nearby Siluhu units.

However, Adad-Shuma-Usur's starting army includes some good-quality units, including Babylonian Sappers - elite slingers with long range, good armour and the ability to replenish ammunition. Also, Babylon can recruit Akkadian units using a native barracks, including decent low-tier sword and spear infantry as well as archers.

Adad-Shuma-Usur's army can be reinforced with additional units, such as better-quality Akkadian warriors. He can encourage the army defending the walled city of the Qingu kingdom to leave the protection of their walls by raiding their lands close to the city, or besieging the city.

Maintaing public order can be challenging, especially in newly conquered regions. Building shrines of Marduk (the god which Babylon worships at the start of the campaign) provides a bonus to happiness.

As Babylon's king is subject to Assyria, Babylon may be drawn into Assyrian civil wars. If you accept an offer from Assyria of adoption into the ruling dynasty, you could become the supreme ruler earlier than you expected (when the current ruler of Assyria, who adopted your faction leader, dies). Becoming the supreme ruler has advantages, but it can also lead to a civil war. In a civil war, several other Assyrian factions may declare war on Babylon simultaneously. If the player's faction leader becomes the supreme ruler, you cannot avoid participating in a civil war, and you cannot engage in diplomacy with the other factions participating in the civil war until it ends. You can avoid being forced into in a civil war by declining Assyria's offer to adopt your faction leader. After you become the supreme leader of Assyria, you can reduce the risk of civil war by increasing your Legitimacy - the page on civil wars includes ways to do this.

Legacy

You can choose between Hammurabi the Lawmaker and Sargon the Great. Hammurabi the Lawmaker allows you to gain passive buffs for your empire by creating laws (this is similar to Royal Decrees). Sargon the Great allows you to acquire abilities through completing ambitions, and also offers grand ambitions.