If you make them swap to Persians you're definitely doing something right (or your opponent is noob).
First of all, going knights is IMO incredibly hard in 1vs1. If your CA opponent has siege range and is somewhat decent, it's automatically gg. But lets assume he doesn't and don't go trebuchet early on for that reason.
This is a strategy I've seen versions of by other players and I've made it somewhat to my own.
I'm using this civilization:
- Knight1vs1.jpg (50.39 KiB) Viewed 8833 times
As you see this civilization doesn't have knight HP because that's not really needed against swordsmen in the early game since enemy sword will just try to ecokill. If you feel confident about the early game against sword you can swap this for HP.
I'd also like to stress the importance of building build time decrease and citizens speed with this strategy, it can mean life or death early on.
Anyway, you start out 6 gold, pick civ. Then 2 stables and start walling off so you only have 1 entrance. In the entrance you should make 2 towers, these towers are basically ONLY against early pressure from CA, so build them with CA in mind, not compact against swords. Here is a picture of how my base looked like:
Since you are sliding, you should scout a lot to see how much army you really need to build.
Your mid game goal is hero, and late game is Temple of Zeus and a ton of swordsmen/ballista/knight/trebuchet.
Anyway, if the CA player has a clue, you'll die to a CA+Trebuchet push long before you think of hero.
. Dont think ballista working that well, because they swap to persians most times.