The Movement Bug: An Arguement Against MP?

[Raiel]

I've seen the "movement bug" before in SP... you know the one: you issue orders to move a commander or a group of commanders to attack an enemy province, you hit "End Turn", the turn processes, you eagerly anticipate the battle results... and nothing. Your units haven't budged. They haven't attacked. They just decided to have a picnic. A month-long picnic.

That's discouraging, but in SP you have the option of backing up your turns or taking a relaxed attitude. Even against an Impossible AI (or 5), that one turn probably won't be enough to change the outcome of a game. But against human opponents the same does not always hold.

On turn 57 of SummerMadness, while trying to take Fomoria's Capitol, I got hit by this bug. In scores of single palyer games, I've only encountered this bug 2 or 3 times. But I've only played about 250 turns of MP Dom3 and it's shown up at a critical juncture. A slightly risky Strategy (series of map movements) with a potentially hefty payoff became a no-win situation because of a bug.

I know that there is a chance to stop an opposing army by attacking from the target province. That's okay with me. If that had happened, I'd curse at my monitor for a few moments and move on. But this is quite different. It feels like a chess opponent stealing a move. I'm angry. I want to walk away from Dominions 3 and never look back. That will pass (I hope), but it demands a couple of questions...

How often do you encounter this bug?

How do you compensate for the potentiality of this bug?

Does this bug drive you to irrational rage? (Just curious.)