Interesting logical account Palamedes-san, as a player who doesn't use mods or plays online, I'm still very much concerned with battles being so quick that it resembles a shooter more then even a click fest RTS. I guess it is my old age (33).

I have gravitated to huge units for three reasons, after doing a metagamming min/max campaign with the Greeks.

1) It seemed like better gameplay. It 'felt' better and although I lost manouverability (which too me felt more realistic) I gained a slower pace of play in which my actions and reactions had an impact. When playing huge I feel like I am indeed a general and that my units are reacting to my commands (slowly just as if they had to be given via drums, horns and flags) and that my input was actually part of the gameplay rather then click and hope.

2) With phalanx armies larger units look so much better and wheel so slowly that they have that grandeur of mass, much like seeing a large ship comming into port.

3) On a strategic level larger units made it easier to manage cities. Lots of peasants/town watch guarding cities and sheer numbers helped.

4) Metagaming/cheating/population exodus. Playing the Greeks I really, really, absolutely wanted Spartans as soon as possible. Put the settings on huge units, made peasant units in all my non-critical cities ,with fertility temples (particularly rebellious ones), and marched the peasant units to Sparta where they were disbanded. Sparta had a population growth each turn of one to two thousand. This netted myself the Spartan warriors very early and caused the revelations of points 1 to 3.