How to Play

Babylonia

2-4 players 60-60 min 7.6 Board Game Geek Rating

Players lead clans in ancient Mesopotamia, strategically placing nobles, priests, and craftsmen tokens across cities to maximize profits and influence. Positioning pieces near the royal court grants special ruler abilities, while deploying peasants in fertile regions increases crop values. Victory goes to whoever accumulates the most points through optimal token placement.

Published 2019

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Determine play area

Place the board and select areas based on player count: 4 players use whole board, 3 players exclude North, 2 players exclude South. Both rivers are always in play

Place Ziggurats

Put a Ziggurat on each blue hex that is in play

Remove tiles for fewer players

For 2 or 3 player games, remove city tiles and crop tiles as specified in the rulebook

Prepare City and Crop tiles

Shuffle remaining City and Crop tiles together face-down, then place 1 face-up in each green hex in play

Display Ziggurat cards

Lay out Ziggurat cards 1-7 face-up along the side of the board

Distribute player components

Each player takes Clan Tokens, stand, and Scoring Marker of one color, placing the Scoring Marker on 0

Identify token composition

Each player has 12 Farmers and 6 each of Nobles: Merchants, Civil Servants, and Priests

Draw starting hand

Shuffle your tokens face-down and draw 5 to place on your player stand, hidden from other players

Select first player

Pick a start player; play proceeds clockwise

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Choose your action type

Either play 2 Clan Tokens of any kind OR play 3+ Farmers

First round exception

The 1st player plays only 1 Clan Token, and the 2nd player plays only 2 Clan Tokens

Place tokens anywhere

Tokens can be placed on any empty spot or Crop hex; they do not need to be connected

Hide river placements

Clan Tokens placed in the river must be placed face-down; you do not reveal the token type

Score Ziggurat adjacency

When placing any token next to a Ziggurat, immediately score 1 VP for each Ziggurat that has 1+ of your tokens next to it

Claim Crop tiles

Place a Farmer on a Crop hex if you have 1+ Clan Tokens next to it already; remove the Crop Token and score VP shown or VP equal to total cities in front of all players

Play 3+ Farmers restriction

When playing 3+ Farmers, you cannot place in the river; Farmers do not need to be connected

Score surrounded Cities

At turn end, score any Cities whose surrounding land hexes are completely filled by Clan Tokens

Score surrounded Ziggurats

At turn end, score any Ziggurats whose surrounding land hexes are completely filled

Refill your hand

Draw tokens to bring your hand back to 5 tokens (or 7 with the appropriate Ziggurat card)

Continue with depleted reserve

If your reserve is empty, continue playing with tokens remaining on your stand