I've played KH campaign a long time ago, but here's what I did:

I shipped the troops from Crete to Greece, aligned with Epiros. Epirotes are besieging Pella at the start and it gave me a little time to reorganize as Maks moved some forces in that direction. You can let them try to lay siege to Athens, just make sure you have enough Hoplitai Hoploi on the walls. Starting Mak phalangites will die horribly on the walls. I use all spare forces to take Corinth. After it's done, I move to relieve Athens or if Athens repelled invasion to combaine forces again and attack Chalchis (don't remember how that island city is called) or attack Demetrias. Once you take either of them the Maks are not a threat as they usually lose Pella to Epirotes.

As to fighting phalanxes with hoplitai - I didn't deploy them on the straight line. I used a curved frontline so that the phalanx line would break and I'd be able to flank some phalanxes. When flanked, levy phalanx will die to levy hoplites or Peltastai. I remember I conquered entire Macedonia with mostly Hoplitai Hoploi because I couldn't afford yet to produce a lot of Classical Hoplites. Hoplitai Hoploi are one of the best militias available and do excellent job for their price.