I brought up this point on Omni's Hinnom thread but thought it worthy of its own discussion. IMHO, there is no nation that so thoroughly dominates its age like Ashdod. Sure Hinnom and Niefelheim are powerhouses, but at least they have to contend with each other, along with some other pretty dominating EA nations like Lanka, Fomoria, Sauromatia. But in the MA, nothing comes even close to Ashdod. Their tool kit of dominating resources is frightening:
- Berserking, sacred Anakites with FR75, 50HP, high MR (15) high protection (14), decent combat stats for giants (Att 12/ Def 15) and magic weapons
- Recruitable Adon SCs with 3 misc slots. Since this nation will almost always have an E bless, protection gets jacked even higher with Bracers/bless double counting
- Heat +2 preference means Heat +3 an extra 120 pts to help with the high gold/resource scales for the nation. Fatigue for any non-heat nations, but no worries for Ashdod since most units are at least FR 50
- Ridiculously tough PD
- +15% forge bonus on Talmai Elders
- Archers with 16 protection, Range 50 and 17 damage bows
- Non cap sacred Zamzummite mages that can thug with up to D4 possible (they are D2E1 +D/E +D/E/S/F)
- “Nice” national summons
Because of their durability, the troops you recruit as Ashdod will likely rack up experience and thus improve their combat stats, while most other nations in the MA tend to have to recycle troops. Woodsmen, the other giant troops in MA (Jotunheim) are nowhere near as effective. No protection, low MR, low attack, no magic weapons. Pyth another strong MA nation will watch its non-sacred hydras get torn apart by regenerating / reinvigorating Anakites assuming the usual Ashdod E/N bless.
I suspect you will start to see Ashdod come to dominate the victorious nations. I am not recommending they be banned or nerfed but new players should beware that Ashdod may be like the Ermor/Ryleh of the LA - a nation that should be joined up against aggressively early on if it is your neighbor. Especially avoid them in games with hard research. I look forward to playing them if a game ever starts where the organizer hasn't already picked them
