HOLDER'S HEROES

Primarily residing in the crimson brigade, the Babylonians are one of the biblical civilizations that are featured in Redemption. I don't want to discourage you from playing with Babylonians, but this is one civilization with a plethora of possibilities that have yet to be realized. With that said, let's take some time to explore the Babylonians.

Follow up:

There are six Babylonian evil characters. You'd think that having this many would make a Babylonian defense really good. However, all but one of them have no special ability. This means you have to rely on Enhancements more than characters. There are several Enhancements that are Babylonian but Breaking Through and Destroying the Temple are the only ones that build off of the Babylonian theme. The Enhancements also don't directly win battles for you. The combination of weak Babylonian Evil Characters and non-battle winning Enhancements makes it difficult to have a strong Babylonian defense.

The best way to use Babylonians currently is as a support rather than a main focus. Great Image is a staple in most crimson defenses, and while it doesn't win the battle, it does a lot of damage to your opponent's offense. The other Babylonian Enhancements are good for hand control by limiting drawing abilities, discarding from deck or arranging what cards your opponent will draw next.

Using Nebuzaradan and Babylon Sites is also good, because crimson is already strong for Site lock-out. Having a little bit of cannot-be-negated nastiness never hurt anyone, and Nebuzaradan brings that for the II Kings Enhancements.

The main thing to remember about the Babylonians - as they are right now - is that they do a very good job of supporting crimson's other main strategies of Site lock-out, territory destruction, hand/deck control, and banding. Be mindful of this and you can use the Babylonians to your advantage.

The time will come when the weak Babylonian Evil Characters will be reprinted with special abilities to boost their effectiveness. There is a lot of material from Daniel that has yet to be used as well. Some stuff may even be in the Priests expansion (ed. - I admit nothing! -Schaef), but even if its not, Redemption is sure to see the Babylonians get stronger with reprints and additions from future expansions.

For another view of the Babylonians, I encourage you to read the article by Bryon Hake entitled "And the Babylonians Came..."