[Agrajag]

Not that I have the game, but I can hazard a guess.
First of all, its obvious from what we were told that the usefulness of recruited armies depends on the era played; Late Era features weak mages and strong troops, while Early Era features strong mages and weak troops, (the middle one is obviously a balance of both), so the strength of recruited troops depends on chosen era.
Furthermore I read that SCs have been nerfed (including Life Draining Weapons), and I think mages got a little nerf as well, so I'd expect spells and SCs to be a bit less dominant.