Hello Doug,
Nice to see a happy horse archer
I do not yet have the game but I have tried out a few battles. Is it my imagination or do archers (mounted or on foot) have a greater range now? Maybe it's just me, I have not played for so long I was very rusty. Until the patch fixes the AI a bit more, I would advise against killing the enemy missile units or the rest of their army go into shock and do nothing....but die hopelessly. This is fine for heroic victories but does little to provide a satisfying challenge.

Instead of stopping and firing as soon as the enemy is in range, missile cav sometimes doesn't stop until they're about 5 meter away from the enemy.
Because they're then right in the line of fire of the missile cav that did correctly stop as soon as the enemy was in range, they'll suffer a lot of casualties from FF, and the enemy infantry usually is able to engage them in melee.
I think I understand this point....and it was something I encountered in RTW, especially when HA were in CC mode. You order them to attack and away they go. Just when you are thinking "Hang on guys, are you going to stop?" they finally go into the CC animation but now are closer than you wanted. So, a few tips when using HA...
Switch off FAW.
Send HA to locations, preferably flanks and out of range (but not too far out of range)
Use single click to target a unit (this should see them fire as soon as they are in range)
Use them in tandem (threaten with one unit or group, attack with another)
Use direct frontal attacks at key points (enemy units are vulnerable as they march. When they stop, pull back)

When you clearly have ranged supremacy, you can afford to attack directly, I won my finest ever MP victory this way in a MTW 3v3. We were Italy, Mongols, Turks. Our opponents were Danes and two Spanish. My Spanish opponent had four pavise arbalests, each time he marched forward I sent in two rows, Mongol HA and Steppe Heavies. As his charge of cav broke through his lines my units would retreat. With four Golden Horde Warriors and three heavy cav waiting, he could pursue only so far. As he pulled back I repeated the tactic and employed two units of steppe cav out wide on each flank. Next time I melted away from his charge, my steppe cav hit his arbs; he now had no missile protection and was forced to attack. A combination of my infantry and two heavy cav engaged him while on my left I sent one HC and some steppe heavies to rear the Danish who was beginning to route the Italians. With two enemies routed my Turkish ally was defeated, though my infantry held the other Spanish army long enough for me to regroup my cav and win the day.

Back to M2TW, I noticed that battlefield upgrades are still there. This is not good news

.........Orda