Actually IMO the autocalc for mtw 2 was pretty good. Much better than RTW. Granted sometimes it would give results not to my liking and some in favor to me. Since autocalc cant be perfect I'd say it's balanced.

Really I don't find it worth it to fight the battle even if I can win it with 10-50 less losses

And as for rebels they are toned down on auotocalc. On very hard difficulty with 1to1 odds I win over 70 percent of battles on autocalc against rebels

As far as factions its me walking in with a big stack and if the odds are close I fight it anything else I auto resolve. Occasionaly the autoresolve gives such bad results I reload and fight. Since its close to par 95 percent of the time I like it.

And think of it this way your sending out a captain to do something in your mind is piddly, some came back victorious and some not so lucky