The "spear" bonuses/penalties only apply if the unit has been given the appropriate weapon attribute in the EDU. In EB no spear unit that uses only spears for melee has been given it (instead they get verying degrees of anti-cavalry bonuses in the "mount_effect" line); units with the phalanx formation need it for their primary weapon so the formation works, and some of the "double armed" spear/sword units (Celtic and maybe Sweboz heavies, some Hellenic guard units mainly) have it for their spears.

Far as I can tell the club dudes are intented as "cheap and cheerful" mass infantry for dealing with the heavily armoured troops many of the Sweboz' neighbours start getting later on, and as such don't have too much use against most Eleutheroi armies. Assorted axemen, nevermind those scary Wodanawulfaz, are a higher-quality version of the same theme.

The Ridonharjoz kinda suffer from the fact about everyone and their dog near the Sweboz starting regions has a spear and is thus pretty good against cavalry, and their overhand cavalry spears may still have some statting issues (there's still an across-the-board consistency problem with these in the EDU). However, they should do well enough on flank and rear charges and as router-chasers, and ought to be able to cream the Celtic Leuce Epos types in a straight fight due to their higher base combat skills (the latter are of the underhand cav spear type with very low base attack, high delay, high charge and AP - not a very good combination against high-skill low-armour enemies like the Sweboz obviously).