Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
The Concept
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, would have been a sight to see. We can only imagine now what they would have looked like. I like to picture lush, green rain forests on top of all the roofs, and vines stretching between the buildings. I picture birds of different varieties, a multitude of colorful insects and flowers, waterfalls and mosses dotting all the great pillars and walls. I imagine it would have been the sort of place one could lose themself in, and that would be perfectly okay.
When Geek Attitude Games introduced Babylon, designed by Olivier Grégoire, and Board Game Geek’s summary was “Build a three-dimensional version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,” I knew I had to play this game. When images were released of beautifully flowered tiles stacked on pillars, with fountains, bridges, statues, and stairs, my mouth watered. This game sounded cool and looked cool. I didn’t even have to walk by a table to see the table presence this would have.
The game, as it was summarized, has you building your own 3D Hanging Gardens. To do that, you’ll be selecting flower tiles, gaining pillars to build on, placing those tiles on the pillars you gained, then placing any qualifying decor on the tile as well. As you may have guessed, some tiles will allow you to place stairs, which means you’ll be stacking multiple levels on levels, almost in a pyramid fashion. The different levels will be staggered from the levels below, and all the levels will be full of rich decorations. The game ends after a pre-determined number of rounds, based on player count, and scores will be tallied up for decorations used, flowers used, levels built, etc. The player with the highest score wins.
The Gameplay
A game turn in Babylon has three steps. In the first step, you’ll choose a tile from the center, or “quarry”. These tiles come in three different styles: clay, granite, and basalt. The top layer, clay, are the most basic tiles, offering placement of only two decorations each. Granite is a bit more advanced with three each, and basalt makes up the bottom layer with four decorations per tile. When you choose a tile, you’ll get a number of pillars based on the location of the tile, the layer the tile is on in comparison to adjacent layers, and whether or not the flower on the tile matches your player flower.
After choosing a tile, you can either use it immediately, discard it and keep the pillars you got, or swap it out with a tile you have in storage. If you decide to use it, it must be stacked on either three or four pillars. If you stack it on three, you have to place a specific decoration, called a belvedere in game, on the corner which is not supported by a pillar. After placing the tile, you may place any qualifying decorations, based on certain requirements, on the tile.
Finally, after you choose what to do with the tile you selected, you store any single level pillars you didn’t use for later use. The turn then passes to the next player. After all players have had a turn, a round token is flipped. These round tokens will either be blank, have some sort of advantage, such as bonus pillars, or some sort of disadvantage, such as less pillars, for the next round. After a set number of rounds have passed based on player count, the game comes to an end.
Scoring is done from a top-down view, and any decoration that’s completely covered is not counted. Each decoration scores a certain number of points multiplied by the level its on. The stairs score based on levels they connect added together, so stairs connecting levels 1 and 2 score 3, while stairs connecting levels 2 and 3 score 5. You’ll also get points for sets of all four decorations, sets of all four flowers, and levels in your garden.
First Impressions
When I first laid eyes on the box, the thing that caught my eyes right away was the exquisite artwork on the cover. I’d really like to credit a particular artist with this work, but unfortunately, the only clue I have as to the artist is The Creation Studio. Also unfortunately, that cover was the only place I was going to see such beautiful artwork, or any artwork at all, really. Beside the generic flowers on the tiles, there was no artwork to be found anywhere. Even the rulebook was covered in text, example illustrations, and earth tones. For me, it was a little disappointing that a game themed on something that must have been so awe-inspiring didn’t try to represent that with some grandiose artwork throughout. Though I wouldn’t classify it as a Euro, everything about this game looked very Euro, so I hope you like your games monotone.
That aside, the components were very good quality. If you’re someone who minds a lot of plastic in your games, however, you may steer clear of this one, because most of the game is plastic. The minis of pillars, stairs, belvederes, statues, fountains, and bridges, were all highly detailed for being as small as they were. Each miniature was pleasant to look at and really did a good job of making the game come to life.
The cardboard was all pretty standard. No dual layers or anything fancy. The insert served its purpose well, and as a bonus, allowed you to pre-set the game up for the next time you play, which I thought was a neat feature. The component count in the rulebook was a little off, but only in the sense that it told me there would only be one game end token, and I had four, so it wasn’t a big deal. There was no place for the player boards to fit inside the insert, so they had to just casually float on top of the insert cover, which was kind of a nuisance.
Execution
For all the ooh’s and aah’s this game will attract, the execution of such a fun concept leaves a lot to be desired. First, let’s talk about the categorization of this game. A quick browse through Board Game Geek shows me that Babylon isn’t considered a dexterity game. Make no mistake, this is about as much of a dexterity game as Jenga. If you haven’t caught on yet, you are building upward in the game. The first level isn’t so bad, but by the time you’re building your second or third levels, you better hope you don’t bump the table. Or have to sneeze. Or are a fidgety person. Or live on an active fault line. Or own cats. I wish I was exaggerating.
The problem lies in the stacking pieces – the pillars. The first layer is built directly on your player board, which has nice recesses cut into it to keep the pillars evenly spaced and free from sliding and tipping. However, pillars after that are primarily built on your first layer tiles, which have no recesses. This means your pillars are just sitting there, and the tiles on them are just placed on top. Nothing keeps them from sliding around or tipping over. This could have been mitigated with triple layer tiles with recesses on the top and bottom for pillars, or even something like small magnets molded into the pillar bases and tops. The down side would have been the cost, though.
One other problem that plagues the game is the lack of a rotating first player. The first player is the permanent first player, which, in a tile drafting game, means the last player in line will always be the last player, and will always be picking at the scraps left behind. This could be house-ruled, though, by just allowing for a rotating first player.
Final Thoughts
This game sounded and looked really cool. I wanted this game to be as fun as it looked. Problem is, Babylon doesn’t look as appealing as the pictures made it look. The game wasn’t as fun to play as it was to look at. It more often felt like a chore just trying to keep the pieces from falling down than it did a game I was playing. It was just so tedious and fiddly. With a few improvements, I feel like this game could win awards. And it felt like Geek Attitude was right on the edge of something great. And it should have been. It’s Babylon. Maybe there will be a second edition at some point, but I’m not going to hold my breath. In the meantime, I guess I’ll just keep trying to like a game I was so excited about, but sort of let me down.
Babylon details
- Designer: Olivier Grégoire
- Artists: The Creation Studio
- Publishers: Elznir Games, Geek Attitude Games
- Release Date: 2024
- Player count : 2 - 4
- Age range : 8+
- Time range : 40 - 60 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Modular Board, Open Drafting, Three Dimensional Movement, Tile Placement
- BGG Geek Rating: 7.34031 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
- More articles about Babylon.
Add Comment