Romans vs. Makedonians

[Watchman]

Then again, the historical Macedonians blew that often enough...

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Problem with the Makedonians is / was that their army needs a competent commander. Which the Legions never needed, history is full of stories of Romans winning the battle despite of the abilities of their commander...

[Watchman]

Well, it's not like there's a particular shortage of instances of a blundering idiot managing to throw away perfectly fine legions either. Plus the part-timer nature of early Republic armies meant they tended to bleed kinda heavily at the start of every new war when the units and officers were still "learning the ropes" and getting used to each other, as it were.

The real strenght of the Roman system was that they were able to make good of the casualties and keep up the pressure until the other side cracked; no matter how many legions Hannibal out-generaled and demolished, the Romans were always able to call on fresh reserves and roll out a new army; no matter how often Spartacus gave them a whipping, the Roman potentates had deep enough purses and the city suburbs enough poor hopefuls that new legions could be sent against him.