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Looking on the unit description of, say, the Agema, it says "very long spears". Do theese very long spears have a longer reach (which would be logical) or do more of the ranks participate in the fight in phlanx formation? I havent noticed any difference when fighting against or with them very long spears.
I imagine that as well as looking fairly cool, longer spears mean you can poke the enemy from farther away, thus keeping them away for longer, thus keeping you're men alive longer. Just do a custom battle with a long-speared unit, and see how long they last against some roman soldiers (turn off guard mode) and then do another battle with an equivalent unit that has shorter spears. Time each battle and see how long it takes before the enemy gets around the spears to your men.
Long pikes make it possible for more ranks to engage. In game terms, the long pike phalanx units get 5 ranks of spear points out in front instead of 3.
but typically same level of hoplites can beat their long spear equivalent pikemen
Not if the pikemen are left in defensive mode and not told to attack though. If they are told to attack, they'll close ranks and get poked around by the hoplites, but by being idle and defending only when the hoplites get in range, the poor old Hoplites tend to die at at a cowardly distance without being able to shove their spears back in retaliation. That's how you can utterly destroy Spartans with your Silver shield Pikemen for example.
Yep, the longer reach of pikers allow them to win.
The hoplite piker disparity is biggest at the hoplite/levy pike level. Even then, if you pack/triple shot the pikers, they will win easily.