I have some questions regarding the stats of sword units vs spear units. Looking through the stats I see situations where the sword units seem severely underpowered compared to spears.

An example:
Saxon Warriors With Spears (cost 558): 19/19 Melee attack and damage.
Saxon Freeborn Seaxmen (cost 614) : 17/17 Melee attack and damage

The spears also have better charge, better armor, better melee defence.
The swords have 1 bonus against infantry.

And I see this situation a lot, sometimes the swords are a bit better than a similar spear unit at melee attack/damage but the defensive stats are miles better for the spears.
The mod looks awesome but I am a bit worried by there being almost no armor piercing (I only found it on crossbows, axes or javs don't have it) and sword units seem to be underpowered.
Why would I recruit swords when I can just get the spears and use them for both frontline and flanking?

Is this intended? Is there something I'm missing? I know battles are supposed to be slower, but it makes me worry that as a barbarian faction facing mid-late game roman units their armor will make them almost invincible.