Yeah, it sucks in sieges when the enemy has long range archers and I have nothing to answer with and in battles where they have myriads of archers to rain shit on my infantry, but they counter it with an almost unstoppable archer platform that gets right into the enemy ranks, shoots down into them and tosses them around like rag dolls.

Agaisnt parthia you have to have elephants.
March your line right up to theirs with elephants on your flanks and it will be very hard for them to turn your sides with cavalry archers.

Unless i am playing a faction that has awesome archers i dont usually use them. Carthage's slingers and skirmishers suck so i just make up for them with elephants

In MP, Mass SB Cavalry+Mass upgraded RS Cavalry rips through most formations. One has to be good at cavalry maneuvres though.

Just press the alt key, than attack the unit, I have found they are pretty tank archers, have fun

But yeah us Carthaginians need archers that can use flaming arrows! And elephants are far more effective in the front lines, but I guess if u want those archers...