RTW: Auto-resolve battle woes

[Mythrantar]

I am baffled by the way the AI calculates victory or defeat when you tell it to autoresolve a battle. Almost every battle that I have asked the game to auto-resolved has resulted in defeat (from close to crushing) while whenever I took command of the battle personally I have almost always won (clear or heroic victories). The most ridiculous example was during the siege of Carthage with 3 armies of at least two chevron-units (silver pikemen, silver legionnaires, kataphracts, companion cavalry, archers), upgraded to silver or better (I am plying as the Seleucids: 160BC, controlling 34 provinces so far and at war with all the roman factions). The defenders (Scipii) sally forth and bring in reinforcements for a total of a little over 3000 men (mainly legionary cohorts but there are some urban cohorts in the mix as well, auxiliaries and 2 generals). -Every- time I asked the AI to resolve the battle it led to a crashing defeat (losing over 6000 men ). When I took command, I crushed them (they escaped with 50 men) while I lost 1700

In MTW this never happened: If you had the superiority in numbers and eqauallity in upgrade levels I never needed to command the battle personally.

So, what gives?

[Mythrantar]

I also forgot to add that my armies did not have generals and I am playing on very hard/manage all settlements, long Imperial Campaign.

[ZIM!!]

thats why your loosing your Army needs good leadership if its going to win a battle I suggest when fighting battles especially important ones get your best General in the Army this is designated by how many stars he has make sure he has more stars then your opponents general then try auto resolve and see what happens

[Indylavi]

Yeah, you need a General with some leadership. The other day my army of 368 men took out a rebel army of over 1,000 because I had a 4 star general in command. Just get a somebody with some rank and you'll be fine

[Tricky Lady]

Autoresolving battles in a TW game is very often equal to taking a huge risk (in terms of winning or losing the battle). I don't know how "experienced" you are with regard to the TW series and its battles, but generally you will do much better when fighting the battle yourself than having it autoresolved by the computer (even when your army doesn't have a good general).
I used to autoresolve a lot in MTW (especially towards the end of the game), and lost many more men then I would've lost when I would have fought the battles myself.
BTW, the AI has also a tendency to "kill" your general when you autoresolve a battle. Did this once yesterday in the Prologue campaign, when one of my faction leader's sons (an average general but good governor) faced an outnumbering Greek army (I believe it was something like 250 vs. 450). I autoresolved, and -BAM!- bye bye general. It was a crushing defeat. I don't think I would have managed to win this battle, but at least I would still have got my general.

[Indylavi]

Yeah, it's always best to play the battle yourself. If you have to autoresolve then try to gain as much advantage as you can. I also lost a General and even one of my gift units from the Senate.