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Originally Posted by Eagle of Fire
In Dominion 3, your success is extremely closely linked to what you do. You can't simply leave default orders and expect a good battle if you have a custom strategy in mind.
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Oh, not really. Actually, you really need it,
if you want to win in "even" battle, or if you have lesser force. Than yes, you totally need good strategy.
But the same is true for any complicate strategy game. And as I am more strategist, and only casual tactic after all - I am usually terribly sucks with big even battles. So I tend to avoid it. And play with overwhelming forces in key points.
In that case it's your forces that matters, not your subtle strategy.
And for me it's the huge
bonus for me in D3 - even if I gave not very best selection of orders, after 5th turn it no matters. Except obvious and terrible fails like "say to archers go to melee" or "charge horses against elefants", but such things usually learned quite fast.
Also remember: computer usually have exactly yours abilities. So it can be the difference before 5th turn, but after that your troops intellectual abilities have exactly the same values as AI ones.
And yes, your mages casts
best possible spells, if they feels like it. It's strategic combos that sucks here for both sides - like having flame arrows to destroy enemy casters (auto-orders will address closest target, or maybe will not use flame altogether) or suicide elefant rush to backside (where AI will simply try to crush first rows). But in whole this auto-combats are not bad at all.
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Then, about movement...
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And then you are mostly screwed as the computer will then branch off to every single of your own "core" territories. And that would happen even if you actually had a crushing advantage in forces to begin with.
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Ah. You totally miss garrisons then.
1. No any castle can be taken, if you have minimal garrison inside. It will be siege, and it will take at least one-two turns to breach walls. Actually, in most of my games it's good 4-5 turns. Enough to return your army.
2. Even without any castle, you always can recruit local defence. It's quite expensive beyond 10, but not requires any maintenance. One unit per one point of defence will be with you in case of enemy attack. For 10 point you will get also one commander, and for 20 - spellcaster.
Actually, local defence effectively sinks even larger enemy armies and can totally block lesser invasions, even without having you to do anything.
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Try to imagine winning Master of Magic with having auto combat on at all time and you'll understand what I mean. 
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Well, it's all about scale.
I can tolerate MoM, Age of Wonders or MoO2 battles for 9-10 units, but even it often takes me tenth of minutes to finish. It would be impossible to play Dominions such way for me. Heck, it takes hours to even
view this battles on huge map in mid-game!
Also, it's rather positive for me than negative. Makes battle more role-playing and realistic for me than usual "I have total control over full battle" thing.
Also, why it need to be MoM-like? View it under Civilization-like angle. Battle in Dominions just like that - either you win, or lose/retreat. Totally automatic, no tactics involved. (No, I don't mean Civ5, of course.
) It's not totally true, of course, as you still
can give custom orders, but such view can help you to properly estimate it.