[cthulhu]

I'm the guy playing Ashdod in the game that DonCorazon was talking about.

IMHO, Ashdod is the most powerful MA nation, and arguably more powerful than even the best EA nations:
1. Sacred capital-only soldiers that are better than any other MA nations sacred soldiers, almost as good as the best of EA. When combined with a good bless, Ashdod sacred soldiers have no major weaknesses, and lots and lots of strengths (strat move 3, very high HP, high attack and defense, 2 attacks each, one of which is magic, very high damage, decent protection, bezerk, fire resistance, MR 15, plus whatever your bless grants).
2. Capital-only recruitable commanders that make better thugs than anything recruitable in MA, almost as good as the best of EA.
3. When fighting EA strong sacred nations (ie Neifelheim) you can sabotage their capital with spells and spies. That can be a bit difficult if they're doing an SC strategy, as their commanders don't need too terribly many resource points, but it can work. Ashdod is less vulnerable to this strategy because in addition to awesome capital-only units Ashdod also has excellent buildable anywhere units, particularly the Zamzummite (all Zamzummites can cast raise skeletons/dead, 62.5% can cast Summon Earthpower and thus all the E3 spells that usually follow that, and 25% can cast either magma eruption or GfH after summon earthpower - and they are sacred, holy-1, and very tough). The Gileadite archers are kinda decent too.
4. Decent PD.
5. Decent national summons. At conjuration 6, the Dirge for the Dead summon makes a decent SC chassis (innate 0 encumbrance sacred etherial undead giant, with excellent combat stats, an extra misc slot, decent starting equipment, etc. The main disadvantage is a small insanity rating). At Conjuration 7, Call Hashmal is a decent way to convert astral gems into a preacher. Call Arel is a good way to get rid of afflictions (which Ashdod desperately needs, since it has lots of thugs and SCs without recuperation), to get an extra holy-3 for divine blessings, and to get access to higher level nature magic. At conjuration 8, Call Ophan is an good (though slightly bizarre) thug (holy-3 flying lifeless etherial protection 20 size 6 trampler) for 49 astral gems. Banquet for the Dead is a higher level variant of Dirge for the Dead, but I don't like it as much as the main unit produced has a higher insanity rating, and extra magic paths that aren't particularly useful on an SC. At conjuration 9, Call Merkavah takes a ridiculous amount of astral gems (222, compared to 100 astral + 20 nature to just wish for the same unit and GoR it), but it is IMHO the best SC chassis in the game, slightly better than even a Seraph, though not as effective at combat magics (it's hard to beat the Seraphs F4A4S4H4). It comes with excellent bodyguards too, maybe even worth the extra cost incurred by casting Call Merkavah instead of Wish.
I consider Ashdod national summons to be overall not quite as good as Bandar Log or Marginon/Pythium/Ermor, but more diverse than those, and significantly better than Tien Chi or any other MA nation.

Note: the forge bonus is not quite as good as it sounds: when you look at the actual forge costs when combined with a dwarven hammer, it has no effect on 5-gem item costs, only a 1 gem difference on 10-gem items, and a 2 gem difference on 15-gem items. Significant, but not like 25% forge bonuses that some nations have access to.

That said, I still expect to lose that game.

If someone wanted to nerf Ashdod, I would recommend starting by reducing the Zamzummites E1 to a 50% chance of E1, raising the base encumbrance on Sheshai Anakites and Ahiman Anakites by 1, and increasing the gluttony by about 50% on each unit plus an extra 100% on the capital-only commanders.