A.T.T.A.C.K.!  Assaulting Thoughtfully:

Tactical Advice for Charging with Knights.  

These articles are an attempt to give beginners and intermediate players some tools with which they can improve their playing skills, in the form of basic principles and maneuvers you can use with your cavalry.There is a ton of advice on the net about how to write army lists, and on which units to use against which opponents, but very little of it shows you how to do that, so I decided to make some diagrams. 

Some of it is more for competitive games, some of it is more general. If there are longer bits of theory, I will put the conclusions in big text so you can just skim over the text and still get the basic point.

Step 2a: Maneuvers against cavalry.

These are a few things you can do to get the upper hand against enemy units which are roughly as fast as your knights.

They can also be used against you, in which case knowing them helps countering them!

This article will be about one on one setups, the next will deal with using a support unit.

One enemy unit versus one of your own. 

The Basic Situation 

I have a lance which is opposite an Empire knight unit. There are no other units around. How can I defeat it? 

 The first thing to do is figure out the relative strengths of the units.

There is no way to get in his flank without support, so the combat will be frontal. In this case, you have one more rank. Average charge damage is 1 for Empire, yours is 1.3. Unit strength is pretty close, if Empire charges they are pretty sure to get it, if you charge you might get it but it's less predictable. Your biggest advantage is of course the 2" extra charge range.

Conclusion: If you can get the charge, your chances are better than his, but it's still risky.

I'm going to risk it. Should I just move forward to around 15"?

The Cavalry shuffle

That will only cause what I call the "cavalry shuffle": he will move 2" back so he is out of your charge range, you move 2" forward, he moves back again, etc, etc. If he only has 10" of free room to move back in, he can keep this up all game. This is a favorite ploy for defensive armies with lots of shooting, where the cavalry holds you at bay while you are shot to bits. Even if you are not shot at, the whole affair is still boring and useless. And it's not just Empire, most heavy cav move 14" so the shuffle is quite common.

Is there any way out of this standoff?

Yes, if we look closely at the units movement and LOS we can find openings.

Here is a picture of the Empire unit and its charge range, the area it can charge on its following turn.

So this is like a no-go area?

Exactly! When you move your units, you move these areas along with them. We can see these as control zones, since enemy units cannot enter them without the risk of getting charged.

Knowing exactly which areas you control is vital for good maneuvering.