I very much appreciate Ross Cowan's excellent comments on the practical realities of the early Roman phalanx and find them quite illuminating. However, that having been said, I'm not convinced that having a strong 'warband' organization within the army and society necessarily precluded use of 'traditional' phalanx tactics. In Greece, there seem to have been strong family, village, clan and political sub-units as well, with these 'tribal' groups fighting as distinct contingents within the larger phalanx, yet still allowing that formation to function as a unified whole. In Athens, for example, ten tribes/clans each provided units that took assigned lateral positons along the phalanx, and we know that common interest groups within these tribes sometimes stood together in the ranks. Likewise, the ten (later twelve) regiments in Sparta had a basis that was only partly geographic and surely included internal groupings of Agoge 'mess partners' much like Italian warbands. As such, topography and other circumstances likely make better arguments against using standard phalanx tactics than simply the presence of lower level organizations like the warband.

As for the existence of personal weapons other than the phalanx's required spear and aspis, I'm sure that these had their uses in the many instances where more formal phalanx fighting did not apply (detached small-unit actions and pre/post-battle phases of a combat for example). Also, it seems that each area in Greece and beyond had such 'regional' aspects that made its phalanx different in varying degrees. I'm sure that it must have held in Italy and its sub-divisions as well. Thus, the Romans, Etruscans and others likely would each have brought a signature style (including secondary armament) to their phalanx that made it somewhat unique.

In general, I think that the phalanx (speaking here of the classical 'Doric' formation rather than its rather less agile Macedonian descendant) was probably much more flexible than is often supposed. As such, it was undoubtedly a bit more adaptable to both topography, local fighting styles and other circumstances than is frequently portrayed.