Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Babylonians are my favorite defense! Here are my comments & suggestions:

TOP 9 ECs:
1. Nebuchadnezzar - one of the very best ECs in the game. A CBN toolbox!
2. Nergalsharezer - super-powerful in a dedicated Babylonian defense.
3. Nimrod - very helpful to set/speed up the defense, and a big body to block.
4. King Merodach-baladan - his play ability is great (best options: Carried Into Exile, Invoking Terror, and Desecrate the Temple)
5. Babylonian Soldiers - initiative, take out artifact/drawing options
6. King Belshazzar - a cool mix of abilities: artifact recursion, EE recursion, and banding
7. Astrologers - combos great with Invoking Terror, good initiative
8. Winged Lion - watch out for the anti-synergy with Nimrod, who gets taken out by Winged Lion (the discard an Assyrian is not a "may")
9. The Imperial Guard - can take out 2 artifacts at once

Honorable mentions: Chaldeans, Arioch, and Nebushaban have potential but are situational.

TOP 9 EEs
 1. Head of Gold - set up and timed right, can capture an entire opposing offense.
2. Great Image - set up and timed right, can discard an entire opposing offense, except for those in battle.
3. Nebuchadnezzar's Pride - interrupts the battle and takes out all opposing heroes, plus 6 toughness! One of the few EEs that works against a fully loaded Armor of God Hero.
4. Invoking Terror- Versatile. Great combo with Astrologers. Takes out Moses from territory being CBP.
5. Carried into Exile- a versatile 2-human capture that can be played by King Merodach Baladan.
6. Dream - better than Swift Horses because the draw is a "may" and 3 cards instead of 2.
7. Belshazzar's Banquet - doesn't work through Coliseum (except on Nerg) but a sneaky auto-block and can be recurred by King Belshazzar.
8. Scattered - Coliseum stops it but otherwise is an awesome block.
9. Swift Horses - nice that it's a weapon, but there's so many ways for it to get discarded in territory and if you're not using wall of protection a Nergalsharezer-Swift Horses used against you can be devastating.

Honorable mentions: Desecrating the Temple, Treachery of Jezebel, Axe, Sarah's Jealousy, Midianite Attack, Drawn Sword...all of these have various potential and are worth considering depending on your strategy.

Comments:
- As if Babylonians didn't have enough artifact destruction, Captured Ark is one of the best cards in the game for that.
- Babylonians work well with Coliseum as the only anti-synergies are Belshazzar's Banquet & Scattered.
- A weakness is their characters and enhancements aren't CBP/CBN except for Neb, Nerg, and Invoking Terror...thus, setting up Nergalsharezer is important.
- A great option for Babylonians to use is Raider's Camp. Nimrod can search it out and put it in play, and then Carried into Exile & Head of Gold are unique captures in that they just target "humans" so you can auto-block by capturing your EC in battle and one of your heroes in your territory. Then just give yourself your Hero back instead of surrendering a lost soul!
- And speaking of unique enhancements, a bunch of their EE choices are able to be used in side-battles which is very powerful.
- Finally, it's worth considering splashing in Esau the Hunter & animals (especially Lions and Coliseum Lion) and the CBP N.T. crimson EEs like Dissension in Antioch and Hypocrisy.

All in all, I just feel like Babylonians have so many versatile options and are super fun to use!

I will note I am looking at playing them with Angels so there is that. I'm considering changing to an N.T. Michael so I don't have to be worried that I'll turn off Nebuchadnezzar by accident

N.T. Michael is a good idea. Iron pan can be useful, but is a double edged sword. it negates protect, immune, ignore, draw, and play abilities, meaning it will stop dream and swift horses if you don't play them on a set up Nerg. however, it also makes it a lot easier to take out your opponent's heroes, and you can turn it off if you need to. as for Gomer and archer, those are a little more about personal choice. I typically don't run them, but if you think you may need to snipe some other character in territory or that you need the banding, they are good choices. also, King Zimri can be a good asset if you think BBNB will be a big issue for you.

To be honest, I'd go with Head of Gold over Great Image because Head of Gold is a battle winner, but Great Image is not. Also, even if its only capturing 3-4 humans, how is that bad? Sure it may not capture every Hero, but if your playing Raiders Camp, its an easy chump block.

Head of Gold and Great Image have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Great Image is great in a larger, more durable Crimson defense.  If you can play Great Image and still have EE backup to win a battle, that can swing a game.

Great Image is also great in a smaller defense that complements a fast offense.  If your offense can generate a nice card advantage, GI (especially in a side battle) can guarantee you keep the lead.  Hypocrisy being in the same brigade as GI is just gravy in fast decks, giving you two options to clear your opponents heroes.

Head of Gold, on the other hand, requires you to play a lot of Babylonians.  Crimson has a lot of really nice non-Babylonian ECs, but having HoG in hand and 0 Babs in play/hand is just not a good scenario at the beginning of a game.  Couple in the fact that Nergalsharezar needs other Babs in play too, and you have even more reason to load up on Babs.

If I'm playing crimson, Hypocrisy and Great Image are pretty much auto-includes. Hypocrisy because it's arguably the best EE in the game (outside of Confusion), and Great Image because it can cause opponents to misplay/hold back for fear of it.

I'll also highly recommend Dissension in Antioch (think that's what it's called). 0/6 TEC card that withdraws Heroes CBP. Excellent against the uber-popular CotH.

Crimson is probably my favorite evil brigade, and my fallback defense if I don't have a particular goal for defense. Good choice.