...or a lot of men!! By fighting assaults, I can reduce casualties 90% of the time over autocalc plus pick and choose which units take the casualties.

Also, as to the question about defenders outside the walls in MTW:


ALL THE TIME....NEARLY EVERY ONE IN SOME CAMPAIGNS, ESPECIALLY if there are a lot of small units left over from a really big battle. Also, look out for a defender that has more than 16 small units in a seige. The others will come onto the map as you do destroy units. Sometimes they hide. Sometimes they just get out of the way somewhere. I never send cavalry into the breach unless I'm trying to use them up, but I usually take 1 or 2 light cavalry anyway and set them up in woods opposite the side I'm trying to breach. If there are outlying units, they are usually small and easily dispatched by the cavalry which can find and attack them much faster than infantry!