I was a big fan of Machaka, until I played MP and really analysed the game. Its not exactly that they're bad, its that they aren't good when you compare them to just about any other race. Lets begin with the biggest problem: black hunters.
I discussed this with a couple people in the multiplayer irc room, but I wanted to lay out the case properly here. Black hunter stats (initial form) are as follows:
HP: 13, Pro: 22, MR:11, Mor:14, Str:11, Att: 12, Def: 10, MV:20
CB takes a step in the right direction and at least gives them lances. But the fact of the matter is that these stats in no way justify a 125 gold cost. They have 3 attacks, but with an att of 12 they don't hit enough. With a def of 10, they get hit plenty, and with only 13 hp they need to rely completely on their 22 protection for any kind of use. They also have a size 6 which means they can get ganged up on in a serious way.
At 125 gold, they're (I believe) the second most expensive national unit - to the hydra (at 250 gold). Lets compare these to other units with the same exact effects - machaka spider knights for instance, 45 gold (non-sacred).
Stats are as follows:
HP: 12, Pro: 18, Mor: 11, MR: 10, Att: 11, Def: 13
For 45 gold, nearly 1/3 the cost you get a unit that has better defense, 1 point lower attack, and 4 points lower protection.
But you also get 4 attacks - one being web spit which actually hits (since its an area attack unlike the black spider bite).
Counting recruitment cost alone - 3 spider knights will at all times be superior to 1 black hunter. In upkeep cost, two spider knights will again be superior to 1 black hunter.
Now lets take a look at a different race completely and compare: Pyth (Serpent Cult) has Serpent Cataphracts, these like the machaka spiders also get a mount that fights when its rider dies, and the mount rocks (22 protection (although maybe that was with e9 bless)) and has a similar amount of HP I think ~45.
The Serpent Cataphracts base stats are as follows:
HP: 12, Pro: 18, Mor: 12, MR: 10, Str: 12, Att: 12, Def: 14.
They are sacred and have a 52 gold cost (and a massive 58 resource cost - but for now we focus on gold).
The base stats on the serpent cataphract are nearly equal to the hunter spider - you lose 4 pro, but gain 2 str, 2 att, and 4 def. At least they're comperable.
The problem is that they're ~40% the cost. Less than half. They are resource expensive, and that is some kind of balance. But all things considered at 52 gold a piece, they're decent units. Py SC also has access to two different kinds of hydra (which I believe are seriously underrated and at cost so wildly outpace hunter spiders as to be laughable).
The only sacred unit that might be close to as bad is the Knight of the Chalice, at 90 gold who gets no second form. Its initial form though is much better rounded, and more importantly Mar gets flagellants which gives the bless strategy seeker flexability - IE: he can spam flagellants early, then when he needs something with survivability and punch can take KoCs.
And that leads us to my final problem with Black Hunters, bless strategies require very bad scales - in order to make up for those awful scales early - you need to be able to expand very quickly in the early game. With only one sacred unit available to Machaka, at 125 gold a piece - you cannot field groups of black hunters larger than 4 in the early game. And a group of 4 black hunters has neither the survivability nor punch needed to justify 500 gold in the very early game.
Thats my case against machaka spiders. Here are my suggestions on making them better for CB 5.3:
First, make spider knights sacred. This gives machaka a little bit more flexability, and allows a bless strategy to field enough of them early to be effective. The cost for a spider knight should increase as appropriate to somewhere between 50-60 (they have worse stats than serp cataphract which cost 52).
Second, instead of reducing the cost of the Black Hunter - buff him till he's worth it. Through a change in equipment or base stats, increase his defense to 14-16, str to 12-13, and attack to ~14. Or a less radical buff with a cost decrease.
Lastly, Javelins. Even with the hefty CB cost reduction they aren't worth it. They simply never hit. I would suggest increasing cost to javelin infantry by 1-2 across the board, and buffing the precision to 0 (perhaps with a -1 dmg to justify the still low cost). Cherry's Recruitable Rebalance takes this approach to javelins which gives them an excellent niche, and makes them effective against lightly armed troops when used in conjunction with other troops, which is as it should be.
After all that, I should note that I am pretty new to MP, and its possible I'm wrong about all this - and just haven't used black hunters correctly. . . doubtful, but possible
Machaka in CB
(Not very probable, though!)
Hybrid Mode
