Well, the real problem wasn't that a gun unit would rout a h2h unit. But at the morale level all the units were at, 1 unit routing starts a chain rout very fast. I played a few games at 2 or 3k and got my opponents army to rout by routing a cav archer unit. and the 2 cav units he sent to support it.

I do think it requires more skill (less room for error), but you would have to play without guns.