"Expanded Mod" Updated 01/06

[geoschmo]

Atrocities said:
I set it to auto combat - LEARNED A VERY VALUEABLE RULE - When you click Resolve Combat, you loose your turn.... in this case it cost me the battle. BUG

My guess is that if you had done that turns ship orders and then hit end turn you would have been fine. It isn't really that you lose your turn, it's just that the AI doesn't take over till the turn following when you give it the command to resolve combat. I believe the same thing happens out of combat if you go in and set your empire to AI control. The AI doesn't do anything to your current turn, but once it process the next turn will take over control and start giving your ships and planets orders.