[Samulus]

Im currently playing with Machaka and can say that all their regular light infantry suck... really bad.

Hopalites are much better but pseudo-hopalites in the face of Acrosphale's Hopalites or Ermor's Triarii. Machaka Commanders and Hunter Lords are good thugs with some additional equipment while Bane Spiders are crazy good assasins/thugs. They can even lead others in battle. Spider Riders would have been feasible units to be recruited with a gold reduction and a short bow added.

Spider Knights are really the only cavalry that works early-mid game. End game you'll probably go with a combination of Black Hunters and Spider Knights for your cavalry needs. Their cheap mages and solid priests are alright substitutions for inferior light infantry. The old age diseases still piss me off though. Twiceborn solves the problem but I really don't want to go to enchantment lvl 4 just to save a bunch of decent mages.

My total review
Infantry-Lame
Cavalry-Decent
Priests-Good
Mages-Decent