Good to be on the air again, for a moment I thought I was the only one barred because of some intractable policy reason or software hiccup.

Red Harvest, your may consider keeping a sizeable siege train in tow and moving it into enemy provinces in the same turn as your regular armies. Your siege crews won't take part in the battle but may take the lead as you attack the castle in the next turn. If you don't ant them to (for instance because it's going to fall after one more turn anyway and attacking it isn't worth the effort and losses) you simply withdraw them so they won't suffer siege losses.

I wouldn't judge other peoples claims, but I do get good results in castle sieges (and I do mean castles, not forts) held by 200 defenders or less. At over 200 I never touch the castle. In some cases I lost only seventy or so, provided I managed to tear down several walls and most towers on the business side of the castle as well as use high valour and seriously upgraded assault troops. Halberdiers are my favourites for tackling defending infantry and cavalry, I only send in my own cavalry to take out defending archers. Oh, and I rarely touch castles with culverin towers and so on, simply because they outclass my siege train. Only once did I tackle a fortress with artillery barbican and all and I still carry the bruises.