Resolution of Movement Different in Dom3?

[Hellboy]

I've been playing Tien Chi in SP, and I've had more difficulties with having single celestial masters going into combat alone than I recall under Dom2.

Specifically, I have one case (but many like it) where I have a large army moving to attack a neighboring province. The large army is in a province w/ a fortress. Then I have 2 CMs moving in from a separate province, to join in on the attack.

Having tried from reload maybe 5 times, every single time my large army gets caught in the fortress, with an attack from Lanka (usually a piddling little attack, to make it all the more annoying). Then, of course, my CMs attack alone and get killed.

I played Dom2 for a while, and I don't remember having this problem, or at least not the extent that I am having it now. This is a particular problem for TC, because the mobility of the CMs is such a great asset, but obviously this could occur for any nation moving to attack from multiple provinces.

So, here are my questions:

1) Has something changed since the Dom2 days?

The new manual (which is awesome, btw), describes in an example on p 66 that "... the game determines that Marignon got there first ..." and afaict that could be either random or determinisitic. If its deterministic it sure would be nice to get an idea of what's under the hood.

2) Could anyone tell me if its random or deterministic? If deterministic, any info on what affects arrival sequence?

3) Generally, I would want to be *very* careful in playing TC MP that my CMs did not caught w/o their escorts (or the equivalent for any other nation). So in MP play, are people being careful to always move important attack forces in from single provinces?

Staging forces would solve this problem, but that extra delay in getting your CMs into combat would hurt TC more than some other nations, I suspect...


TIA,

Terrel