i think there should be a middle ground.
in older versions, two large armies would tend to fight for days until one army was totally destroyed..
now, two armies will meet and break apart after a few moments, with hardly any casualties, and then often go their separate ways.
I'd rather see large armies locked in combat for at least half a day, and I also think the autocalc's should happen more often. currently it will calculate casualties once right before the parties break up, in older versions, as the two armies battled for days, they would take casualties perhaps 4 times a day. Instead I'd rather see them calculate casualties somewhat frequently.
This way, if a party of 100 meets a party of 10, the battle will end pretty quickly after a couple of autocalc's go through and the smaller party gets destroyed. In older versions it would take all day for the party to lose, and in the latest versions, it would take just as long, unless they broke apart within moments and ran away.
If a party of 100 meets a party of 100, they should battle from noon till dusk at least, with a couple dozen casualty updates, leaving both sides ravaged by the time the battle ends or they separate. You'd likely wind up with a handfull of troops leading twice their number of wounded and prisoners back to a friendly castle to rest.
can you imagine what TLD would look like in this version? the great hosts would never EVER die without the player attacking them, they'd just dance around eachother all day..