Spears are very unbalanced

[Tellos Athenaios]

Your test actually yielded very, very accurate results. If you'd care to read about the Goidilic units in the Eleutheroi section of the unitpages on the website; you'll come across some fellow of which a historical source tells us they were so powerful that they had destroyed a quarter or so of an invading army (quite large one at that); by the time the other forces reached the fight.

Now that unit is a somewhat lighter copy of the Vasci original; and the Thorakitai Agematos Basilikou is an exact copy of the Vasci. Those Vasci were among the tribes to hold of & beat Romans very, very, very often. They are the absolute zenith of heavy infantry know-how back then -- outfitted in the very best equipment the entire Western world had to offer; recruited from among the best and fittest within the royal guards.

Such things cannot be said about the Praetorians. Actually; Praetorians existed even before Augustus: they are the guards of the tent of the chief commander of the army. As such they are chosen because of their comparative strength as soldiers; but most of all because of their unquestionable loyalty. So there you have it: the best equipment the Roman state has to offer (which isn't particularly good - compared to what you could get in Celtic & Iberian cities; or from the smiths in Syria) plus soldiers who are more loyal and have greater skill at arms than your average back-bone soldier. In the AS they'd have been the Argyraspides based on their skill at arms; and the Royal guard based on their loyality.

But they'd not have been considered good enough for Thorakitai Agematos Basilikou....

[Watchman]

But they'd not have been considered good enough for Thorakitai Agematos Basilikou....

...who were bad enough dudes to rescue the Basileus.

Those effects are not simulated by RTW and therefore need to be accounted for somehow by the unit stats.

That would be the problematic "scrub" terrain then, I presume. Granted even hoplites tended to have some issues with surprisingly minor pieces of rugged terrain, and phalangites doubly so; but as that particular terrain attribute has some issues in-game AFAIK, not much to be done about it.

After all, even if it was pretty secondary the phalangites were still taught to fight with their swords and shields mano y mano if need be too, so it's not like you can really credibly go reduce their melee skills either...

Them's the breaks. You either lure phalanxes into woods, shoot them to bits, or outflank them (preferably all three).