Quote Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios
But they'd not have been considered good enough for Thorakitai Agematos Basilikou....
...who were bad enough dudes to rescue the Basileus.

Quote Originally Posted by Sakkura
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).