That can work, just remember to take Skirmish off!

From my own experience, the AI doesn't take many archers and tends to sit them in between its front line and its cavalry reserve so there's no great opportunity to charge them.

I would imagine a fresh tight formation archer unit would still be capable of destroying or crippling a light chariot unit in combat if you just left it there (see other posts concerning uber-combat archers around..., if anyone wants to test this one I'd be interested in the results) but against a loose, shaken formation it'd be an entirely different story. So it's just the usual thing of fighting on your terms rather than theirs.