When the Spartans marched out to confront Xenophon and his eight thousand mercenaries, three thousand Spartans would have been some serious overkill.
I don’t care who you are or who you’re with, if you find yourself facing three thousand Spartan soldiers, you are definitely going to get hurt and you will probably be killed ... three thousand Spartans against eight thousand mercenaries would not really be a fair fight ... each Spartan was worth about ten mercenaries so the math works out to be a slaughter and a half in favor of the Spartans.
A word to the wise ... either be a Spartan or avoid Spartans ... especially avoid three thousand Spartans.