[P3D]

LOL. The fun thing is that IMHO both Hinnom and Gath are much more scarier in their era than Ashdod in the first 30 turns or so. Hinnom has size-5 MR-12 tramplers to clean up all indies (well, with two exceptions). And by the time they are obsolete, you are recruiting Melqarts.
And Gath had already rushed their nearest/weakest neighbor, and switched to turtle mode for the next, say, 30 turns.

Compared to them, Ashdod struggles with both expansion and research. The giant they have are neither tramplers, nor affordable, nor (en)durable. Asdod has two cap-only giant sacreds that are expensive. The Hinnom ones are both cheaper and just better (Fear). The Gath Gibborim, while not spectacular individually, are affordable to mass in critical quantities.
The nonsacred regular Ashod giants are worse than what Hinnom and Gath could do. They just... can't kill stuff fast enough?

Research: Hinnom recruits Ammi - kinda overpriced for researcher, but they are awesome fortune teller (10), and provide A2 access. The Horite Shaman is adequate to start up the Death ladder (with a native RoW). Gath has not that expensive (120g)options that provide diversity (ED, FD, ES, SD, D2, E2) - if a 80gp S1 caster would not also be available. What does Ashod have?
1/ Overpriced Emite that can't be used as thug - at that point just spend the gems on a Zamzummite. Wait, 1/4 of them can forge flaming skulls, too bad you don't really need more than one of those. Another 1/4 of them are actually useful as communion slaves, and could cast Nether Darts at Evo7. Unfortunately, researching that would take an eternity.
2/ Sages. They are just too expensive for research. The magic they provide (E2/S2/F2) is overpriced at 200gp. Nor are they providing any spectacular magic on a reliable basis. This leaves you, out of capital, the
3/ Zamzummite. Yes, he can be thugged (for gems). Yes, half of them can skellispam giant skellies (1/2 chance for doing that effectively). But no E3 access (boosts/casts/forge). F randoms give you nothing besides forge access. Token ES access that you should already have on the Sphynx, and 310GP is to expensive for communion slave. Gath can do it all except the skellispam.
But as it is in CBM 1.92, I'd make three or four changes:
2/ Change Sage random to 3 F/E/S. Those guys are supposed to know more than what could be learned in a human lifetime.
3/ Reduce the cost of Talmai Elders 400GP. That's about what they worth, without H3 or cross-paths.
4/ maybe, give them a semi-decent size 2 unit.

Ah, and make their national evocation castable by their mages.