I changed the line settings as suggested and had some field engagements with militia pikemen and noble pikemen against armored sergeants. It was not a pretty sight. The pikes would not keep their pikes down. When I'd get them to put them down, then the men on the sides and the ones not on the front line held thier pikes up or switch to swords if near an enemy. It was a butchering. The militia pikes did kill one third of the enemy before routing. The nobles just stood there and died. I was advancing with them up a slight hill. From the animation it seems that the problem came because the rearward lines all held their pikes up rather than keeping the spearwall. I tried switching the spearwall off and on but it did not help. (When you do the switching of the spear wall off and on do you have to wait for 5 seconds or so for it to work properly?) In these battles the pikes actually performed much worse than when I had them advance on the knights in the town square. I think that I'll just remove their secondary weapon to see if they really are too overpowered. I'm afraid that I am too impatient to micromanage these guys.