[kianduatha]

Maybe for the PD do an intermediate change first--the real problem are the crossbows. I've seen 10 crossbowman from PD stop 8 mammoths before they even reach your front line. If the PD were 1 Clansdwarf 0.5 crossbowmen, then it might be reasonable. It wouldn't have the killing power to really do anything.

If you give the Brother of War Dom4, could you also give him a chassis cost of 40 instead of 50? That way people could afford another scale with him. The main problem with him is you give up high air access, which cannot be stressed enough. Put Flight and Fog Warriors on some Troll Slayers and everyone wants to cry.

The only units I can really get behind raising the resource cost of are the crossbowmen. Right now by far the best expansion strategy is to every round get a prospector and as many crossbowmen as you can, and you field an expansion party every 2 rounds with prod-0.

The funny part about getting rid of the drain immunity is that suddenly your research mages are Engineers, and you only make Runesmiths when you really need someone and can't get a Runelord from your capital. This has the side effect of making the Dwarfs even more of a nightmare to siege. "Oh hey you might not want to do that each of my researchers has castle defense 20".

Frankly, though, I'm not too concerned about lightning nations. Again, that's what the prospectors are for. Their flanking miners will tank the lightning for long enough to get through. If you wanna be really careful, keep Ironbreakers or Runeguards as having the lightning resist, but take it away from everyone else. That way you have a counter to them, but aren't just casually immune to it.

Trollslayers could maybe go up to 40 gold. They're really a late-game unit/"oh no a giant nation is rushing me" type, so it won't really change anything, though. Noone'll still get hammers.