I heard it was out and I guess...

[Myth]

Depends. 1 settlement barbarians mass slingers and some melee, but if you leave Syracuse to its own devices it will take the Africa province and start spamming heavy hoplites. Sparta early on will keep devastating stacks, and if it ever grabs enough land I assure you it will be a problem.

Macedon also makes quality stacks - pikes, companiions etc. A 2 settlement Gaulish tribe last night surprised me by conjuring up almost 4 full stacks that had sword infantry mixed in, as well as some cavalry. Early on that's more than you can handle with one stack unless you got to Oathsworn, but that was around turn 16-20 for me.