Heard the fresh food idea on beasty stream.
Make it so once you research fresh food and likewise fertile crescent the HP of all units/builds effects by the respective buffs are reduced by the portions of the savings.
So a 32 food vil hp before textiles would go down from 50 HP to 32 HP. Likewise 32?wood house HP would go down from 750 HP to ~487 HP. TCs, farms, etc etc.
So the defensive boom would continue to existence but the new reasonable counterplay would be to target the wet noodle eco units/builds.
Camel archers will continue to be a problem behind such a strong chap eco but unsustainable if that eco gets devastated.