Can someone tell me about Machaka?

[Jarkko]

Right, Black Spiders are now 80 gold a piece. However, 36 resources makes it difficult to recruit more than a couple in the early turns.

[Amorphous]

You do not need more than a couple.

The first expansion party is reasonably made up of ordinary spiders, but as soon as you have taken an adjacent province or two, it is not hard to come up with the resources. I usually play Machaka with sloth 3 and manage it just fine.