Defender's Advantage

I know this will get downvoted.

Suppose you're defending with knights against enemy knights, and have a military disadvantage but a slight economic advantage. What can you do to maintain a kill/death ratio of at least one (or positive kills−deaths)? If you can win fights while at a disadvantage, then your slight economic advantage will eventually let you win a decisive battle, or you can go raiding while defending with fewer numbers. If you keep losing fights, then eventually you'll lose the game as well.

Some people might say that fighting with large numbers of knights doesn't involve micro the way archer fights or fights between 2~4 scouts do. The only way to win is to have more knights, and to avoid splitting them up.

Game where this happened:

First big fight between knights

Start of the second battle

After second battle

Green got 13 conversions, red got 9, orange got 4. Teal was slinging green.

Source: game 2 from ECL 2v2 Africa | Semi Finals | Frantic vs Vietnam Legends [Full Best of 5]

Green lost the first battle because some knights were off raiding, and orange was there with some pikemen and archers. Green had no arrow upgrades, so the TCs didn't contribute much to the fights.

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Green's options for winning fights despite fewer numbers:

• Make walls for monks. It often happens in AoE2 that monks get a conversion, then are immediately killed off. Palisade or stone gates can be locked to keep monks in without manually retreating them, which loses conversion progress (or wiki). One place for gates would have been between monastery and market.
• Make walls for the farms, which also helps monks by letting them safely travel further.
• Circle around with some units, preferably light or scout cavalry, and attack monks while enemy knights are advancing. Retreat with main army before getting converted, preferably to where your own monks are behind some walls.
• Lure off large numbers of knights with a smaller group of knights. If you raid with 10 knights and let your opponent see it, they may send 20 knights or even their entire army to stop you. Scout or light cavalry help here so you don't lose knights to monks at their base. Do it during a battle too, early enough that you can still win the fight between units that didn't run.
• Build a wall to protect back eco so there's no need to put a castle back there. Green did build a castle in the back, when it would have been more useful at the front. If building castle at the front when opponent has knights, build walls around the builders before the attack comes, not during it. The wall is useful for monks and siege weapons as well.
• Protect your monks against ranged units. If your monks are hard to kill, your opponent will be hesitant to bring knights near them, making this task easier.

The defender has access to lots of nearby villagers to build walls, and buildings that offer vision of flanking attacks. They should use walls and take advantage of their opponents' lack of vision to separate components of their enemy's army, instead of fighting the entire army at once.