I agree that for playing recon as svart is playing their strength .
however the ranger and the satyr are not svart only.
To just limit what you say : currently, in my Svart game I didn't unlock ANY svart recon unit.
hunteress is given from start
Ranger is hunter-guild and not svart only
assassins were given through an event
Fawn./Satyr are FoL and not svart.
the only svart unit I unlocked is the Melee unit... to see if it can be used (because the forum advocated that melee were normally more powerful). I built 3.. .and can't use them for combat as they are too slow. too slow to get to xp-farming ground; too slow to get to combat ground.
So the only advantages my svart have over other civs playing recon is... the sinister trait. Which is good IMO, but it doesnt negate all the other strengths of a double movement mage that can attack as strong as a melee and can get +4/5 more str than units of similar tier, and does spell damage without using mana.
in my last hippus game (or the previous Illian) I mostly played recon for the same reason as for Svart: recon have 2 mvt and are stronger than mounted in everything.
for Hippus, I had a few mounted units, but not a lot... until I got the tierIV mounted units (because they had blitz and there was no nerf yet on xp), and the windsword (which has 2mvt).
For Elohim I played a game 1 year ago or so.
the Difference with elohim is MONK, and SPIRITUAL.
Indeed, with disciple start with 2mvt, its a good incentive to play with it. (and if melee had 2mvt it would be the same).
further MONKS have interesting promotions that might be balanced with recon... but I'm not even sure.
further for Elohim, the crux is that.... Devout suck a bit as a recon unit as it has str of an assassin... but cannot assassinate from start.
So with Elohim it"s harder to play with recon.
And in that game I tried the Healer circle, so I forgoed the hunting guild... and couldn't get the sweet sweet Ranger.
For me, the conclusion here is that "for civs that have bad recon-rosters and don't profit enough from FoL" recon is bad.
well, that's normal, that's due to the composition of the roster, not due to the str or weakness of the class/disciplines.
it's normal that civs that only have a 7str recon units will use more their 10str/12 str melee / mounted/archer.
but for equivalent starting str, IMO recon are better.
For disciples units I like to get the one that give +2Holy, +holy weakness... so that other disciple of the same stack can profit of the holy-weakness.
I also liked the +1mvt, +attack multiple times/turn, but only for high tier units, when my +2str from tech is important, and that was before you nerfed blitz.
I think the martial art promotion is nice and fun, (stun+20% against stunned units) but could really be improved by +1FS as for the first unit, it doesnt do much... or if the stack is huge, you never get to capitalize on the stunned status.
I discoverd the Healer class (the one that gives second chance...) it is nice.
I played too with the FoL auras... but they are hard to get: need much xp, without boosting the priest himself. (and I only found eagle and snake useful. Bear's movement cost is too great, and cheetas has too limited terrain : +1 mvt would be more useful (like a haste-aura) IMO)
the command are useful... but I rarely have the priest at high enough str and str% to really be able to use the command units.
well. Promised, I'll play elohim or malakim in my next game, when you'll release your changes