Yea, i've noticed that auto calc does tend to be generous with the xp (at least it seems that way). My fleets tend to xp up pretty high using solely autocalc (i have a few 4 xp brigs!), cuz i'm just absolutely putrid at naval battles. However alot of times during land battles i find my treasured vet units taking more losses than they should in the lopsided battles in my favor auto calc so i tend not to use it.

Elmar i generally use the tactics you just said, but alot of times the computer will just start pivoting to shoot my veteran flankers even while my newbs were engaging them from the front. Its annyoing as hell since it defeats the whole purpose of me wanting my vets to not get hurt and get some free kills.

Also i've noticed a coupla things that are pretty significant bugs. While my trooops take cover behind a wall, i've noticed a bunch of times that they wont fire at an enemy even with fire at will on. Half are crouched and another half is just standing there and they're eating fire without responding. Another massive bug is that when the AI brings in reinforcements that have fixed artillery in them they wont spawn on the battlemap (since they cant move i guess). However since i cant kill them and despite not being on the map at all i cant win the battle since i didnt "defeat" everyone. Dude this a massive bug, i mean in M2:TW fixed arty wont spawn and wont count for victory conditions, i've lost a bunch of early battles this way. The only workaround to this is to retreat everyone and lose the battle but at least killing everyone that i could get my hands on. However i've noticed that whenever my arty glitches and refuses to limber and i cant withdraw them and i quit the battle the casualty resolution screen acts as if i didnt withdraw ANYONE (even though i did withdraw 95% of my army) and kills the majority of my army when techinically they werent even on the field except teh for the glitched arty.

These are some pretty damning bugs that are pissing me off to no end right now. They better patch stuff like this up soon otherwise i might just pass on the expansion.

A quick question how come when the AI cav charges over a wall to engage my crouched infantry they cream my boys, but whenever i charge over a wall i slow down get stuck and my heavies get bayoneted down like pansies.

I just hate having massive armies, i like to use the same army group and fight a massive number of battles building up high battle xp forming an elite army. The battles in this game are just too sparse and bloody to allow it though