Defeating HA Armies - Without your own HAs?

[Carthaginian General]

How to destroy HA's huh? well if they're armoured HA's, forget trying to outshoot them, you'll need medium cavalry. Or Rhodian/Balearic Slingers, but then you'll take heavy casualties... but then again, so will you with the medium cavalry). If not, armies of well-armoured archers that can still hold their own in melee, backed up by several units of decent spearmen, will butcher HA's. Take Cretan Archers and Thureophoroi for instance. The Thureophoroi can shower any charging unit in a hail of javelins which will wither down what the archers haven't had time to kill, or decimate what they have had time to kill, and they can then engage in melee.

Basically, in order to beat HA's you have to beat them at their own game, using different units. Well-armoured archers in loose formation take out HA's, well-armoured spearmen in a narrow, deep formation take out close combat cavalry. It's a case of either obliterating them or getting obliterated, close battles with HA's should be rather rare.