Quick question to those who play raging barbs: Is it possible to survive the onslaught without beelining to archery?

I normally play Emperor with normal barb settings and find that most of the time, you can well afford to bypass archery and defend with warriors while getting axes or chariots online. Since I was looking for more of a challenge, I decided to try raging barbs but find that this limits my playstyle, as it seems to me that archery first is a must, to survive the hordes.

Anybody get by without it?

Someone managed on Deity in a RB event - where the player started alone on a giant continent to maximize barb spawn - but I don't recommend it.

Archers do a lot better at defending resource mines, and they generally don't die so you quickly get guerilla 2 or city 2 units that stop axemen when they appear. I think this is enough of a reason in itself to get archers.