Donso in Dark Age are quite expensive. While they have the extra range throw, HRE gets to take the fights with extra mobility.

As HRE, putting up your own outpost on the Malian gold is worthwhile. It forces them to get gold elsewhere, limiting their Sofa and Javelin Thrower production, as they rely heavily on pit mine and passive income, struggling to get enough gold for their needs.

Against Malians, just slow them down; you don't need to kill anything. Making them invest in things that aren't cows gives you a leg up.

Before blacksmith upgrades, Sofa have only three armor against eight damage from archers, so they take a lot of damage.

Sitting under the TC and killing all the cattle denies Malians their passive food income.