i personally have never lost against massive armies of basic troops.... i only like balista now in skirmish games.... in regular there pretty much just a stop over... your Marksmen can usually get a shot in and then back off a few steps to avoid a charge from a macemen or knight or other melee source (if your stupid enough to put a marksmen in the middle of nowhere with the ability of bieng charged, in the first place)

yeah, marksmen are ok, but I can sit back and smoke a marksman with no return fire with my balistas!!

i do like balies for home defence but unless im very confident of vitory i usaly dont bring them whith my outgoin armys if retreat is in order you can count on them being lost

as far as masive amounts of baic troops late in the game i still belive hords of mace will go a hell of a long way cuting there numbers down
as i usaly like mace hc balies and mark (asuming i have a second castle) i belive i would fare well against them