Military reforms?

[athanaric]

saba have an infantry FM iirc, but i never really played the faction

They do, its effectiveness is somewhat limited by not having a standard bearer though, meaning your general is more exposed to enemy attacks.
All three factions with infantry BGs have an advantage storming town centres early on (if you take Kydonia on turn 1 with KH, expect your faction leader's unit to be able to kill about half of the enemy army). Likewise with the Suebi and Saba FMs, who make mincemeat of the local light infantry garrisons. KH and Suebi BGs are also very effective at killing cavalry.

More on topic though, the March of Time reforms are quite beneficial for KH and Makedonia IMO, so I don't see any reason for preventing them.

[The Stranger]

That sounds like a very powerful combo... if not very realistic...

a more realistic army then, 8 levy phalanx, 5 slingers or long range archers (so not the hellenic ones :/), 4 thureophoroi, 2 FM for heavy cavalry, 1 light cavalry to chase routers.

average cost per unit is about 300 per turn, but this army will destroy pretty much anything the AI can throw at you and has a wide AoR.