In this matchup typically there's just not a whole lot of aggression for the first 6 minutes going on, so you definitely have enough time as the Malians to go for that second pit mine.

He's also going to need an absolute ton of archers if he wants to take any favorable engagements against the Limitanei, as that shield wall means they're barely going to be flinching when archers fire at them.

The shield wall ability massively reduces the attack speed of the Limitanei, so they barely do any damage to Sofa, and the Sofa can shred through the frontline.

With poison arrows, Cataphracts struggle to stay alive – the poison damage ticks them down quickly. Without Cataphracts, fights are much better for the Malian.

The sofa's also just slightly faster than the cataphract, so you always need to be chasing continuously. And eventually the sofas will still be able to get away from you or maybe snag a couple of additional villager kills.