[atul]

Maybe it was part of the movement verification stuff done a patch or two ago?

It would seem that as it currently is there is some sort of flag on each phase whether there's a fight. If the flag is no for a fight in a province during magic battle phase, previously sneaking now moving from A to B don't fight in A. But if there's a magic attack on prov A the game gathers all non-sneaking troops present at A during magic phase (which includes our sneaker) and resolves the fight in the usual order (nations first, then the last man standing fights independents).

Same flag applies to the drowning check, see the thread couple weeks ago about troops moving out of water without items or drowning if there's a magic attack on the province...