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Really? I was under the impression that the Battle of the Tuteburg Forest was a crushing defeat for the Romans precisely because the legions were forced to fight in small groups rather than large formations.
The Romans were slaughtered in Teutoburg Forest because they were stretched out in a long march formation, disorganised and ambushed while in the confines of the forest. The Germanic tribes were armed with light swords, lances and spears. Lots of metal. Because the Romans couldn't fight in formation they were decimated.
The survivors were ambushed yet again in a cunningly planned bottleneck. Again the Romans were decimated because they couldn't fight in formation due to the restricted terrain and the Germans could attack from cover.
Arminius himself was an ex-roman legionnaire and knew precisely how to defeat the Romans, which was to not allow them to fight in formation. That said the Germans had superior numbers so we can't conclude that one on one they were better combatants than the Roman Legionnaires.