Excuse me, friends, but You're lacking attention: now archers can have 2 bags of arrows, bow (2 slots), good melee before they had to choose: 2 bags & bad melee or less arrows. Can u make conclusion by yourself?
Trust me, balancing is much more about looking at one aspect and basing all your argumentation on that one aspect. You are right, choices are nice and all, but so is having options. If you just go for "archers need to choose between ranged and melee capabilities" (which is basically right) you completely ignore the question whether the combined, absolute value of those two variables is on the right level. Could be that they should choose between those two, but could it be that they are underpowered enough concerning their ranged capabilities, that a slightly better melee weapon would be justified (because it was decided that the old ranged capabilities were causing problems)? I don't see you check on the archer's general effectivity in your suggestion/rant.
Btw. the choices are still there, they only got shifted a bit. It's like
- 0 slot hammers & the like
<
- 0 slot swords
<
- 1 slot 1hd weapons
<
-2 slot weapons
....
Now the threshold just got shifted from the first "<" to the second. Which means there is still a choice between ranged and melee effectivity. Especially since swords are a) light and b) only mediocre cutting damage, which means that together with the probably REALLY low 1hd-WPF and power strike of most archers those swords are only good for blocking until help arrives, nothing more. They will glance and do petty damage almost as bad as the old 0-slot weapons, making the archers no more effective than before.
And don't forget, that it's not only archers who can use swords. For example it's a nice backup weapon for dismounted lancers, who don't want to go hoplite. Or a nice backup weapon if combined with a 1-slot-shield for every player who has a 3 slot weapon, like pikemen or maulers. And it's a good choice for every hybrid. You didn't take this into consideration, either, did you? I mean, it's not like you can compare the swords from the middle of the shop side with the hammers, picks, axes and good swords from the end, but all of them cost only one slot. And don't tell me the upkeep restricts the choices, because for many, if not most players it does not.
I hope you are satisfied with my suggestion.