I'm a missile cav fan. I love horse archers, javelin cav and gun cav. I send them at the start to shoot from the flanks and generally harrass. Then I send my heavy infantry and heavy cav. Depending on faction, I'll have infantry missile troops with the heavy infantry and cav as well. I typically like the hybrid ones like dismounted Dvor where you can sometimes turn off skirmish and watch them own anything that gets close.

I remember fielding armies of dismounted Dvor, Dvor and Cossack Cav with Russia. The Dvors pack the punch while the Cossack are really good chasers and can chase most cav. I usually kill/capture 95%+ of the enemy after a fight. Sometimes, I sacrifice troops by making cav mop up before rejoining the battle.