Is it just me or are pikemen jank in city battles?

Assaulting a city they suck ass because their value is in being a pike wall, and defending a city they suck ass because eventually their formation gets disrupted and they get owned.

Or am I doing it wrong?

What kind of pikemen? I used Tercio pikemen all the time in my Spanish campaign, but I could never attack with them effectively. On assaults, I used them as a rock to block streets against counterattacks. Defending I used them as a rock to block streets against the assault. In both cases I'd hit the people attacking the pike block from the flanks. In all cases the pike unit had to come to a complete stop, get its formation sorted out and formed into spear wall. Only then would they hold effectively.

Pikemen usually work best if you have a unit behind the currently engaged guys.
Nothing motivates like a spear wall at your back ;)

Pikemen works as a defender vs cavalry. So use them as a defender vs cavalry. Simple indeed.

pike are excellent all round in defence SO long as they do not have a broken formation.

so in cities you must be very careful with their placement in streets.


getting them to attack something with their pikes rather than swords though is an exercise in frustration

I used pikemen in a human wave kinda thing to take Jerusalem... Was playing the mod which spawns quite a large army in there, so was up against lots of dismounted knights and things. They were slaughtered by my pikes... but then, they were Portugese aventuros, which seem to be amazing.

Aventuros are the most amazing pikemen in the game, bar none. Beats all the others flat, including Swiss pikemen and Scots Nobles.