Firstly, I used the ExRM v3.3.3 installer from here.
I've been toying a bit with custom battles before finally trying out a Greek Cities campaign. I noticed the Hoplites have weird fighting animations. They hold their spears underhanded like all other spearmen, but what happens alot is that these spears would be held in a 45 degree or almost 90 degree up position, even when they're supposed to be thrusting at the enemy.
I decided to line up every "Hoplite" I could dig up on custom battles from the Roman and Greek rosters and see which do this and which do not, but they all do.
Is this animation intentional? It looks awfully weird for them to "punch" an opponent with the non-pointy end of the spear.