Cav civ vs Cav civ

Ok, as a Cav civ, I have a lot higher success rate against archer civs than another Cav civ and I tend to lose in the same consistent manner. Scenario setting: scouts or MAA into castle age knights. I initially have more knights and are upgraded. And I reached castle age slightly earlier and have a small score lead (usually as much as 500), if not much. The opponent then turns to defend with pikes and started to build multiple TCs right away. Seeing that I cannot destroy them I retreated my knights and started to boom too. And then in late castle age my knights would lose to a fight between their knight + pikes combo. And they ALWAYS reach imp faster than me and come up with better eco and better army. My thinking of the reason is that if I didn't cause significant damage in early castle, I would almost always lose, and it is probably because they chose to boom immediately and I wasn't able to stop them and should have done 1 TC all in? There could be also other reasons, for example I always forgot to do wheel barrel until mid- castle age. Could that be the main reason I am out boomed? Also, I rarely do pikes following some pro's advice but I still fail against knights + pikes combo at my elo (1000-1200 range)