Couple of EB gameplay questions/issues

[option]

Not sure if this is the right subforum, but figured it was close enough. I just recently started into my first EB campaign (v1.2), as Epeiros, figuring they would be a challenge but very doable, considering I've beaten vanilla a few times on VH/VH. Wrong. I'm playing on VH campaign/H battle (huge unit sizes) and getting my ass kicked constantly. I'm about 15 years in and am barely holding on against the combined onslaught of Makedonia and the KH, who apparently allied even though they both refused time and again with me. Some of these battles are ridiculous - I know EB ups the difficulty level and that AI units get some morale/combat boosts on hard, but I've had things like one unit of peltasts meleeing three of my hoplite units to death. The morale on these enemy units seems to be through the roof, too, because it typically takes about 80-90% casualties for a unit to rout, even when their general's dead and they're surrounded. Mass routs don't seem to happen like they did in vanilla, either, and I wind up having to beat each individual unit to within an inch of its life before it finally turns and runs. Money is a constant issue, too - I'm never able to recruit more than one unit every season or two and I can't seem to figure out an effective way of upgrading my economy. I see other people posting things like Epeiros AARs on VH/VH showing them conquering Greece in twenty years and I can't see any way that would be possible, so am I doing something wrong or is there some other problem?

One other random Epeiros question - is it possible to replace your elephants?