I'd rather get shit on by a 10+ merc advantage in melee rather than by archers. The former was the case, so at least there's that.
It's sort of like having the "best" kind of cancer.
Actually, I'd like to request (not like I can make demands of how you live your vidja game life or anything) that unless the battle is an interception or something, they take place later in the day. Getting shit on isn't fun, but its much more fun if both sides can get 51 mercs. 8-10 PM EST is ideal since it is unlikely that there will be more than 1 significant battle in a day.
I can't force anyone to do anything though; we'll consistently have fewer mercs earlier in the day than later. It's wise to initiate battles earlier against us if winning is the sole objective, but it has been less fun for me to win in the past with a large merc advantage. When we were fighting Hospitaller last strat and we were up 8 or more mercs every battle it did get boring very quickly.