Is archer/xbow play too strong? Please, any help appreciated.

Intermediate ranked play. Sorry, I know I probably seem like an extremely new player - but I'm not!

Also been specatating games around 1400-1500 and seeing others have the same issue. Sure, I'm talking about Brits and Ethio, but even Japanese going full xbow->arba, I'm struggling against mass crossbows in general. I'm still winning most games, 54% win rate, losing about 60% of the time when someone goes mass archer line.

Even if I go full Elite Skirmisher, and match the xbow/arba upgrades, I feel I'm at such a disadvantage (and the fact I want to play my civ's style, i.e. cav and inf (Bulgarian)) - because skirmishers are a unit I cannot use for anything else i.e counter attack.

If you win engagements, you then can't counter attack with skirms, they're absolutely useless against anything but the archer line - even 5 non-upgraded light cav will slaughter them, and they can be easily microed and outranged by the archer line: the archers can use range (even more so as Brits), or just split and micro and walk up close to the skirms - and if they have a couple scouts - even those are enough to just obliterate the skirm pack. I've tried adding mangos, of which they can easily micro against (respect them for being able to do this), and even worse - add their own mangos, which my skirms cannot micro well against, or just trade against my own mangos.

Sure, in late late game you'll not be using gold, and that's great, ... but in the early-mid game, food is so valuable. If you use skirms in Feudal they counter archers well, but the skirm player will in theory have a longer castle time - it costs 800 food after all, and then when in castle you're left with the skirms - again, useless if they transition into anything else. The elite skirm upgrade is significantly more expensive that xbow, you're expected to have 230 gold lying around (when you went heavy on food to produce skirms, and castle up) - and they're a unit that cannot hold their own against anything else. I've tried adding a few spears to defend against even just 2-4 light cav, but they're sniped down, and picked off.

I've tried going into knights instead, but early castle knights are just one tapped by xbows, you're at the mercy of pathfinding (even more annoying if you're attacking and trying to use patrol/attack move - which may well attack his buildings)... and, the xbow player has been massing archers since Feudal. On 2 ranges, there's no way you'll have enough knights with both the armour upgrades out in time in early castle.

If the archer/xbow player has walled as well, you can't choose to go on the offensive. By doing so, it simply buys time, but the xbow player - due to the woodlines on open maps - is potentially already sniping off your woodline vills - and gold if you're unlucky enough to have a forward gold mine.

I've tried holding the line with skirms, and using my cav to raid - that's worked - but it's still meant I've had to have upgrades on my skirms (to match the xbows), and therefore less on my cav.

Of course, I have done archer play myself, to see if my claims are true - and I've found them extremely powerful - as I'm so often on the receiving end of.

Any advice would be appreciated - and discussion welcome.