Instead of making swords the best initiative and have counterattack, the best ability, especially on heroes, why not split these up.
Make spears the fastest initiative at +4 and make swords +0 but have counter attack. This divides the 2 best traits of weapons and makes spears a reasonable choice in more situations.
Another option is make staffs the fast thing but not deal a lot of damage. So if you want speed use a staff, or if you are a mage use a staff. If you want damage or counterattack use a sword/spear/mace.
Mike.