First of all, thanks for all the advice.

But second, I'm afraid the pikes are either a bit too sensitive for me, or somewhat random.

Even in situations where my pikes are *definitely* not being flanked, I'll see them draw their swords and start to suck.

Example 1: I'll have a long line of about 8 units of pikemen, all units all nice and snug shoulder-to-shoulder. Spearwall on, Guard on. The pike line gets charged, and after a few seconds of fighting with pikes, they'll switch to swords -- even units that are in the center of the line who are not being flanked. I've tried switching Guard mode off after a second or two but all that does is make them move around, get flanked, and switch to swords even faster.

Example 2: City defense. I had a unit of Noble Pikemen guarding a street at the top of a little uphill slope. I put them on the top of the slope (you know... that crooked, slopy street that's in all the cities) with guard mode on and spearwall on. Almost instantly they switched to swords, just after being charged by some infantry. It seemed like being atop a slope actually made them WORSE, as the enemy was able to come in UNDER the pikes.

It seems like enemy units can fight their way in between the pikes pretty quickly, and then the pikemen draw swords -- no matter what I do.

Thankfully my Scottish campaign is wrapping up, so I can play a faction that doesn't depend on these twitchy units... Unless I'm missing something else?

CountMRVHS