Question about stacking for units/fighters/sats/etc.

[Singollo]

Greetings all, I have some questions about stacking abilities on units and whatnot. First off, I apologize for asking a question that has been discussed many times before; I have conducted several searches on this topic, but I'm having a hard time dividing the pre-Gold responses from the Gold responses, and the Gold responses from the latest-patch responses, etc. So, many thanks to whoever can set me straight here.

My question is this: in Gold v. 1.67 (? whatever the Lastest patch is), do combat abilities possessed by one unit/WP/fighter/sat apply to all others in the same stack or fighter group? By "combat abilities" I mean things like combat sensors, religious talismans, ECMs, etc. If so, is this a bug, or is it a deliberate feature?

Also, is there any particular order in which the units are damaged when they are struck in combat? I've read a lot about the strategies involving stacking "shield WPs" in front of "weapon WPs" and whatnot, but again, I've read conflicting reports about whether or not this is a bug, works in Gold, etc.

BTW, I know that this is a kind of newbie-question, and it feels funny to ask it, since I'm not at all a newbie. It's just that my normal playing style makes absolutely no use of combat involving these types of units. I have a very fastidious, neurotic playing style: I eschew ground combat and insist upon glassing all planets and building them up anew; I use mobile fleets as system defenses rather than satellites; I prefer capital-ship warfare to fighter combat, etc. I've never really dabbled with units and whatnot, hence my ignorance.