This is on M/M. Alexander's command stars and virtues combined with veteran units make for a formidable army. I haven't been limiting re-training and this is the core army that started in Macedon. I've been merging, retraining or resupplying this army since I started and they've taken every province (except for 4 or 5) that were off the beaten path, so they have a lot of experience.

As for "Alexander the Butcher" - that's from chasing down routing units after the battle's over. As soon as I noticed "the Butcher," I stopped chasing routing units and it soon changed to "Alexander the Brave."