I lost a nuke to a phalanx in Civ 1. Still salty about that _decades_ later.

Civ III battles are best thought of as dice rolls like the board game Risk. If you have more modern units you get to roll more dice but there's still a small chance archers defeat musketmen.

Civ V definitely solved the issue by separating unit strength and their HP. Not sure about Civ 4, but I think it applies there too.

tbh that's a civ rite of passage