You're right, play styles simply differ. They are the ultimate form of the cavalry based force, which is a world-conquering option. My personal style leans more toward the "balanced" force... lol, I don't like waiting for sieges - and I like being good at most things, rather than perfect at one thing.

As to the tests, I left the Camels in the AI's control, because I knew that the difference between the AI's ability to control them and mine was less than, in particular, my ability to control the Knights and the AI's. If the AI had been in control of the Knights, they would've just sat there and gotten shot to pieces. If they had charged, they would've done so in a start/stop manner, constantly reformed and still gotten shot to pieces. On the other hand, I chased the camels by placing the Knights in Loose Formation, and charging at a point beyond the Gunners, thus the Knights didn't do any stopping to reform, and their faster speed allowed them to catch the Camels - at which point I switched them into attacking... this resulted in both units being slaughtered.

With the gunpowder units, even charging - Janissaries, Cossacks, Portugese Arquebusiers and even Sudanese Gunners will still be able to beat the Camels because their melee stats are better and they have more men... in effect, closing to melee just hurries the Camels demise. This is even more true of many of the long range archer units which have strangely good melee abilities. That is of course, provided that the commanders are equal... I don't doubt that you can still beat the AI... but, lol