What's the point in elite units?

[QuintusSertorius]

well as i tested and posted in that thread i linked, the TAB or their spanish/irish equivalent can hold their own against almost 3x their cost in levy units. if thats not worthwhile, then I dont know... 1 unit can tie down 20 haploi, which are arguably one of the better levy units as well.

Levy are the wrong comparator. You should be comparing them with Regular units (eg Hoplitai) who are very good value.

I rarely face levy units, and I rarely use them except for garrisons or to make my armies deliberately less effective. For example in my current Epeiros game, the unit of levy hoplitai in my royal army are "Illyrians retrained as hoplites".

Here's that army:



The only elite in the stack (besides my FMs) are the Kretans.