In my experience having levy phalanxes in field battles works just as well as elite ones, however in offensive city battle(where their formation gets F-ed up and they need to fight with swords) Elite phalanxes are needed to carry the day.
One notable and technically game breaking in this sense is Pantodapoi, with their AP axes, Morale is their only real problem, and a small one if you know how to exploit it.
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