Favorite phalanx-based faction?

[Aemilius Paulus]

The part with "too little variaty" in your statement on Baktria is really odd.

Sorry, I should have elaborated. What I meant was that there is too little variety in the enemies Baktria faces, the directions of its conquest (only west), the settlements (one meaningless AS town after another with same Pantodapoi Spearmen/Phalanx and archer spam), lack of defining geographical features (Mediterranean Sea with all its affiliate bodies of salt-water or even the Atlantic for example) - for Batria it is endless deserts, steppes, with a bit of mountains sprinkled in between.

And anyway, most of the other variety problems I have already mentioned. Baktria is a splendid nation in a lousy place. Unlike the hyper-central locations of Eperios, Makedonians, Koinon Hellenon, and even the Romani.

They are too barbarian.

Precisely why I like them. They are the ideal mix of "barbarian" and Hellenic in my personal opinion. Makedonia has strayed far from its wild roots, and after Alexandros and subsequent Diadochi, it is just another one of the many, with very little of its past days of a tribal culture. Eperios still retains the spirit of the fierce barbarian warriors, it is not yet corrupted with the "comforts" of "civilisation".

Just as the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues were when Romans arrived at Greece after the Second Punic War. Still retaining their fighting spirit, unlike the somewhat spoiled Makedonians and thrice more decadent Greeks, who all but abandoned their citizen militias in favour of mercenaries, the Qarthadastim way - which leads to a predictable ending of a loss. Even Hannibal knew this, which is why he chose to rely on regional indigenous recruits, mainly the Iberians, not independent mercenaries.