Shouldn't most hoplites have shortswords as secondary weapons?

[Yomamashouse]

I am not an expert on Greek infantry, but I recall many times hearing that it was standard for hoplites to carry a shortsword as a backup weapon. Aside from thorkiata hoplitia and ihphikratous hoplitai, most of the hoplites in this game only have a spear, and it makes dealing with infantry quite a bugger at times.

Is this a misconception about hoplites or were they not added for other reasons?

[Bob Doad]

They should but it cannot happen due to the game engine limitations. You could add the swords but the ai switches to sword too quickly when they close with their enemies

[Yomamashouse]

So they have the animations for it?

[bobbin]

It was done because with a secondary they didn't use their spears properly, which given the nature of hoplite warfare was a big problem.

You can edit the text files to make them have swords but most units don't have them in the model, so they will be invisible. The only one I remember that does is the Epilektoi Hoplitai who have a huge xiphos.

[Death's Deputy]

Massilian Hoplites appear to use swords fairly reguarly... except they have big gallic blades, not puny greek knives!