Quote Originally Posted by Shadar
Sometimes it did happen that soldiers could push all the way through the pikes in their momentum and so kill the person at the other end of the spear. Also, the butt end of the spear WAS sharp enough to be used as a secondary weapon if the pike/spear was snapped, and to top it all off the soil on the end of the tip would make it fatal for anyone stabbed with it (usually more soldiers died from the wounds themselves than being killed on the battlefield because of the prevalence of blood poisoning).

As for the flanks, isn't it plausable that since any soldier in phalanx mode is only facing the front, a sword swipe from the side could easily destroy the pike/spear and the hoplites on the side would be virtually defenseless against this - thus increasing the amount of casualties on the side.
Should it happen that just one single man got in among the pikemen, the pikemen would be in great trouble. Not because this man was dangerous, but because all those around him would have to drop their pikes to defend themselves. That would make a very serious opening and more men could swarm in, forcing yet more pikemen to drop their pikes and so undo the entire formation.

The entire idea about the phalanx in this game is that they keep the enemy out of reach while they kill them. That has been nullified by this 'feature/bug'. I'm offto test this against a unit of more powerful charge but not cavalry. If they drop the entire first line of pikemen then it is seriously a bad thing.