Quote Originally Posted by holybandit
Need I remind everyone that pikeman were actually cheaper then knights? In fact they were cheap compared to them (not counting swiss).
hmm, from a historical point of view the ranks of pikemen were often made out of the peasantry or as cheap mercenaries, much like the archers in early medieval times, and it's not like they were attached physically to their pikes, when facing anything else then cavalry they would probably drop the pike and draw some type of sword or blade and engage in hand to hand combat.

In MTW the swiss pikemen are quite inaccurate in the sense that they are some sort of noble unit type, the swiss nobility were certainly knighted and rode on horseback in combat just like the other feudal elites in europe at that time.