Celtic elite units

[Decimus Attius Arbiter]

They were also great skirmishers since they were named after their javelins. So they would know about avoiding those attacks. Defense skill only covers melee. I would think you'd need some velites with more practice to hit them. And as has been said in many other posts, they have mental armor(Watch the Matrix a few times) since they are drugged up and their pain receptors are shot.

You're free to change the stats so you can get a traditional RTS elite. The elites in this game are very role-playing oriented.

Also I do believe when you get the reforms, those new units would have been few and therefore expensive seeing as Rome was buying them over to their side.