I use Rayven1's stratagy only if I am defending against lightly armored troops like the germans, or if I have onagers. Usualy, my army is about 2/3 infantry 1/3 cavalry. I exploit the AI formation and just wait until they come at me in their line. Once they engage my line, I just run around and focus all of my cavalry and archers on one unit. The line breaks. It's almost too easy.

If I am attacking, I still use the same basic thing. I just advance my infantry line, throw my pillas. I have my reserve units and archers fireing at the center unit. I then advance until I am in hand to hand combat, then I let my cavalry destroy them. This makes it even easier when attacking because I can sit back all day with my one or two units of Cretan Archers and annihalate the center unit.

Overall, I prefer Pez's stratagy of using overwhelming force at their weakest point. Well, I agree with your battle map stratagy (we differ in how we work the campign map)