Quote Originally Posted by Dutch_guy
well still , I would choose the swords , the 20 gold more in upkeep is nothing , even in the beginning it isn't.
Plus if you need to assault walls , the low morale spears wouldn't do well , in my experience swords and axe's ( especially francisca's with their ranged attack ) do way better.

Now you make a good point. Fighting in a place where you can't utilize your numerical superiority (walls or maybe streets) have some options to use these units. I'll drop down here stats of aforementioned infantry units when trained from large barbarian city with some upgrades:

Spear Levy:

Men in unit: 120

Melee: 10
Missile: 14
Charge: 4

Total Defense: 13
Armor: 2
Defense: 8
Shield: 3

Shield Wall
Combat Bonus in woods or snow
* Spears have bonus vs cavalry, I think it was +4 to attack?

Recruit Cost: 333 gold
Upkeep: 115 gold

Axe and Sword Heerbann (2 chevron)

Men in unit: 81

Melee:11
Missile: none
Charge: 5

Total Defense: 19 (sword 22)
Armor: 7
Defense: 6 (sword 9)
Shield: 6

Recruit Cost: 459 both
Upkeep Cost: 124 axe, 144 sword


Axe and sword guys can take some beating with their higher defense but get flanked more easily (which leads to morale penalties and backstab attacks).
So what should be done is that most of your infantry are spears, put 2-4 swords or fransisca on wings. That should be good for winning most field battles. I'd rather have 120 men sword and axe units with higher cost and upkeep, spears are just so tempting.