RoRlum (Late Caelum)

[Archonsod]

Haven't tried LA yet, but with any era Caelum the best strategy is usually to use the troops as a speed bump and add plenty of wizards scripted to bring the sky down on the enemy (quite literally in some cases).
Of course, the fact that your own troops are usually immune or resistant to the more indiscriminate spells (lightning or cold) helps, though I'm not sure if they still get this in LA.

[Quietly]

an idea I had with ranged heavy armies ... you can make them hold/attack for up to 5 turns instead of 2, if you assign the army to guard a commander and have the commander attack after 5 turns... this lets you fight the battle much closer to your archers. anyway this is also complimentary with just loosing up to 5 rounds of arrows and retreating. I cant say it would solve all your problems, but it does give you a much finer control over the units.