BigandScary:
Arrrgh!
Wall of Text crits Autocthon in the face for 1452 points of damage.
Autocthon is now blind.
Anyhow, you are correct - due to the lack of charge mechanics and skirmish orders, it's common to have light cavalry sit back and shoot arrows until the enemy closes, at which time they simply switch to lances. It's unrealistic, but it'd be foolish to do otherwise until the above mechanics are introduced.
It's even worse for skirmishing troops, which all to often run up in front of the enemy to skirmish, then stand there and get run down by the main body of the enemy army. If there is no Skirmish Order, I'd like to see a Hold and Fire order in a future patch.
Another interesting point you bring up is the need for charging/trampling units to build up sufficient momentum, which means that they need sufficient distance to use such attacks. The Dom3 battlefield mechnics are not sufficient in modelling this, but I don't know of any sufficiently simple mechanic that will do this in real time, either
Hmmm...

__________________
"Hello, mother. I come bearing a gift. I'll give you a hint. It's in my diaper and it's not a toaster."
- Stewie Griffin
"The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness."
- The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord
http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
The Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but then it'd be Snow White and the Seven Samurai...
-Pinky and the Brain
http://www.lolthulhu.com/
-Props to S.R. Krol