If Giants existed in BC times...

[MaxWilson]

I still think one good, thematic nerf to Ashdod would be to change their PD from Gileadites, Edomites, and Gileadite Archers (over PD 20) to Human Slaves and Edomites (maybe keep the Gileadite Archers over PD 20? Or just put back the regular Gileadites). Rephaites are rare, right? In Hinnom times they didn't even have any females and were reliant on Qedesot to make more Rephaites.

That's not the only thing you'd probably do to them--gcost raises to mages in order to further hurt their research wouldn't necessarily hurt the flavor, and you could even eliminate the cap-only gem income entirely (which would hurt the early Constr-4 forging, as well as being a totally unique penalty). In fact raising gcosts might even intensify the theme of the nation (quality over quantity, now with less quantity). Or, what if Rephaites had some kind of unique vulnerability deriving from their demonic heritage, like an across-the-board cold vulnerability? I don't know if that one makes sense given the mythology though.

Unlike Hinnom, though, Ashdod's non-sacred troops don't need any nerfing at all because the best of them are already sub-par (about as good as Iron Crows IMHO). Not bad, and certainly usable, but nothing like Dawn Guards.

-Max

Edit: One more possibility. Cannibalistic giants and their descendants are inbred and tend towards megalomania--what if all Rephaites had Insanity (5)? Man, that would be a huge pain.