Ashdod proto-guide

[Baalz]

chrispedersen said:
Rather a awake pretender + trampler rush looks almost unbeatable.

I've seen this sentiment elsewhere, but I just don't see it. Their tramplers have 25 hp, cost 75 gold and very high resources. That means a rush is going to see a very low amount of hitpoints in it - you can't afford too many and they've got very low hp compared to elephants. That means any 1) High damage dealers (halberds, greatsword, etc.) or 2) AP (xbows!) or AN (low level lighting spells!) will drop them like flies.

Anyway, yeah they can be good, but depending on the nation elephants are way scarier in a low research (rush) environment.

[MaxWilson]

There aren't any crossbows to my knowledge in EA, so that's not an issue in vanilla Dom3 (although I personally prefer Single-Age Mod). Low-level lightning spells will require lots of mages (I'm assuming the attack/Shock Wave trick is not an option against tramplers), who would rather be doing other things like researching. So I don't see lightning spells dropping them quite like flies--it's be a fair fight IMHO, maybe slightly biased toward Hinnom depending upon the cost of the air mages. I agree that high damage dealers are likely to clean the chariots' clocks on a goldcost basis.

-Max

[chrispedersen]

I'm going from memory - but my memory says that they are defense 16 prot 16.

I view the game in three or four phases. First phase - you want to expand against indies, as fast as possible without becoming a target.

The only time I have had problems with these tramplers is against cavalry that flanked and attacked the commander; against elephants, against the unusual site powers - for example the three air mages that throw orb lightning.

In other words.. very rarely. Balance that - strat move 3, with a strat move 3 commander. I have no problem saying that in time you will want to move to the sacreds. But for the initial phase of the game, I find them very cost effective.

[MaxWilson]

Defense 14 Prot 16 HP 24 IIRC. And yes, they stomp all over indies. But then again, lots of things do. A nation which doesn't have an effective expansion army has problems, and probably has to take an awake SC pretender.

-Max