In my Frankish campaign I first thought the levy spears were pretty cool with their nasty javelins and the massive upgrades you get with the wotan temples. However, after only a few significant battles it became clear that the few heerbann units I kept round as assault forces were much more useful, if only because they don't get slaughtered if you leave them for a few seconds.

A sample battle would be my 8 levy spears and 3-4 heerbann (and some supportive archers and cavalry), versus an evil force of 7 Alemannic warlords and some peasants. Now warlord cavalry are unreasonable strong, and seven of them is just about too much for a proper battle. However I felt confident with my army having 4, 5 chevrons (heerbann 3), and enough javelins to beat up the horses.

It turned out a little different, as my left flank of three spears was crushed in a matter of seconds, while the center with the other spears was getting beaten up harshly. Apparently, when a powerful cavalry unit charges infantry they kill like 20 men in an instant. To sum up; I was able to win the battle with not a little luck, but afterwards most of my spears were annihilated, while the heerbann had pretty much saved the battle, simply by _not_ dying and _not_ fleeing.

after some more rather disastrous experiences with the levy spears I've ditched them and degraded them to garrison and rebel-mop-up duties, as they don't have the morale and surviving ability to hold the line at all and survive a long battle.