Quote Originally Posted by Carl
The thing I noticed when playing the Greeks was that in an infantry vs. infantry fight the Greek units available at a given level totally trounce the Roman ones, (particularly Hoplites and Hoplite Militia), Macedonia and Carthage seem to be the same looking at their unit rosters in the Quick Battle. As a result the Romans early on have to rely on superior general-ship to make use of the more versatile but less powerful troops.
That's not really true; even the early Roman infantry is very good. It's different from the phalanx type units, but quite capable of beating them. I think the Romans are actually easier to use than the phalanx infantry, but clearly the latter fits your playing style better.

A couple of the historical battles highlight the Roman vs. Greek infantry matchup. The basic idea is that the Roman infantry (a) weakens the Greeks with the pila volleys, and (b) gets units around the flanks while the phalanxes are occupied beating on other less fortunate Roman units. Hastati et al. can run and charge without difficulty; phalanxes walk slowly, or break formation if they need to run. So a pure infantry vs. infantry matchup ensures that the Romans can flank at will. At that point the question is which side breaks first - the Roman center being chewed on by pikes, or the Greek flanks getting butchered in close combat? All else being equal, I'd expect a Roman win...

As the Brutii, you can have the best of both worlds since you have plenty of places to recruit mercenary hoplites.

Not sure what was happening with your Numidians; I've never had that problem against infantry. Enemy light cav can do it, certainly; you need to be very careful and protect your jav cav from enemy cavalry. To get best use of jav cav, I'd recommend the following. Turn off fire at will (in fact, I can't think of a single unit where the game's default is correct on the fire at will button...), walk your cavalry forward, far out on each flank. The enemy may break off infantry on their own flanks to face you; that makes them nice targets for your archers behind your infantry line. Enemy infantry that keeps their faces towards yours can be javelined in the flanks - this is why you want fire at will off, shoot at flanks and rear, not the front. Doesn't matter so much against unarmored folk like peasants or militia hoplites, but it makes a big difference against units with shields and/or armor (Romans, better hoplites, Eastern infantry, etc.). As long as your own infantry is at least vaguely nearby, the enemy shouldn't be able to try charging on foot after your cavalry. And if they do, not a big deal, the automatic "keep your distance" setting will keep your cavalry safe, and eventually the infantry will be very tired from all that running. Easy meat!