Yeah, as far as the limited number of spells, units, etc., it's really becoming a serious limiting factor on mods. One that's going to eventually cut into the enjoyment of the game, atleast for me.
But, I wouldn't worry about it too much, in this particular case. Machaka is one of the vanilla Nations, and I think it deserves a certain priority, when it comes to something like spells, especially combat spells, which are already underrepresented, in comparison to summoning spells. Besides, you're not adding an entire new Nation to the game, you're just fixing one that's already taking up a lot of space.
If the smaller spider riders already have 4 weapons, then they're fine. The shortbow still seems kind of superfluous, though, but admittedly not completely out of place.
You're welcome to use my sprite for the Totems:
Normal
Attachment 9073
Attack
Attachment 9074
Machaka sorceresses already have air magic,
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Sorceress
and they're a pretty diverse Nation already, for that matter, with recruitable access to fire, death, nature, air, astral, and earth. If you want additional magic diversity beyond that, maybe they could get a capital only lizard shaman? That would give them access to Astral/Nature, and it wouldn't really break the theme, or unbalance them, since it's a pretty common unit anyway, and making it Cap would keep it small scale. Curse seems like it would be both useful and thematic to Machaka, and having early access to it should serve as an additional rush deterrant. It would also make Machaka slighly more formidable against Miasma C'tis, not a bad thing considering both Nations are likely to take Heat scales. As a bonus, no need to add another unit to the game.
As an aside, considering how blah Machaka's basic human warriors tend to be, it would be great to dress them up with some varied African weaponry.
I'm already familiar with a few of these, having borrowed some for my Aksum mod, but there's a ton more to choose from, including a wide variety of throwing weapons, and even many fantastic weapons that were intended to be used as currency.
Here's a few image galleries for use as references:
http://www.hamillgallery.com/SITE/Weapons.html
http://www.rrtraders.com/weapons.htm
http://www.joelcooner.com/African/Af...f-weapons.html
http://www.antiqueswords.com/Topic%2...%20Weapons.htm African, as well as some Asian weapons.
http://www.africanarmsonline.com/ the Designs link on the left hand side of the page is particularly useful.
http://eriksedge.com/category.php?ca...rican%20Swords
I have another idea for a low level summon, by the way:
Spell Name: Summon Wolf Spider
Requires Conjuration 1, Nature 2. Cost 1 Nature gem.
# of effects: 2
This spell summons 2 Giant Spiders (again, no need to add a unit or draw a sprite).
Giant Spiders are weaker than the spiders Machaka can already recruit, and don't have webs, but they're still pretty decent, and ofcourse much better than your human warriors.
At 2 spiders per gem, the spell is pretty cost effective, but you'd only get 2 spiders per cast, which I think should balance it out pretty well, considering the requirements to cast it, and that it would be competing with Summon Animals. Basically, it would be there to give you the option to use your sorcerors to quickly raise a fighting force, should the need arise, and you should be able to get it early enough in the game to make it effective, even considering the time spent away from researching for several sorcerors to cast the spell.