RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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So, over the weekend I got to playtest a cavalier in a 12th level one time game.
We had a sorcerer, druid, summoner, oracle, assassin, and my cavalier. Overall, the class worked great, and I had a lot of fun playing him (in part because it was fun playing an arrogant braggart order of the dragon, and in part because the class worked well.) By far the most effective choice I had was a mounted charge with my lance, combined with power attack. I only got one attack per round that way (plus one from triceratops mount), but the times three damage from spirited charge combined with the cavalier's charge bonus worked beautifuly. There were some rounds where I couldn't charge, but a full attack worked well in those situations, but the loss of mobility (and getting surrounded) definately weren't as fun.
The biggest issue I had with the class was that it had so many different conditional bonuses and abilities, it was challenging to keep track of them all. Ironically, the thing I forgot to use the most was the challenge ability. To be quite honest, I didn't even feel that I was missing out on anything. Given the choice, I'd rather have more abilities to broaden my versatility rather than challenge. A mounted charge can dish out so much damage, that an extra 4d6 was just overkill. I tended to use challenge only once I couldn't keep using ride by attack and charging, since the 4d6 made a bigger difference when using multiple attacks. The only time the extra damage really mattered was against the main boss at the end, which had effectively 400+ hit points (more details on that in a summoner playtest thread).
The GM knew I was playing a cavalier, and since it was a one off adventure, made sure there was always large enough rooms to take advantage of my mobility. I'm thinking that in a more cramped dungeon crawl, using the mount successfully would be more of a challenge. I'm hoping that either in revisions to the class, or in the magic items section of the APG, there will be some ways to compensate for this. In particular, I'd like to see some more magical horseshoes beyond horseshoes of speed and of a zephyr. Horseshoes of airwalk would be great for dealing with wide chasms, stairs, or flying opponents. In addition, an ability to give a mount nimble moves and acrobatic steps feats would be a good ability for the cavalier - since the mount has precious few feets, and a single bit of difficult terrain can ruin a charge in a big way.