yeah archers were pretty crap and pointless in the game,
Nah.
Just imagine the "noob box", a square of phalangites, with dozens of archers inbetween.
Ordering them to stand ground, and with clever positioning, they won't shoot your own men.
It's stupidly powerful against the dumb AI.
Especially if you've got heavy cavalry to rout them from behind, while they're busy breaking your phalanx wall.
(Using fire arrow volleys speed this up, one charge from behind will turn into a mass rout because of the morale decrease.)
Lame strategy, and I tried to use it as few times as possible.