I had a horse scout at 18 atc vs there scout at 13 or 15 atc . did 3 rounds of combat he was at 10-15% hp left i was at 45-50% hp left . then combat ends and i lose . reloaded save to try again a few times same thing . but auto combat wins every time . have a save i try to upload

 buged combat .ctr

 is this the save ?

Also uploading the player.log file from when you replicate the issue would be helpful   not sure where to find this ?

I had the same thing happen. It's not actually a bug. Early battles are extremely short (3 rounds, 1 turn). You lost because you neither destroyed them, nor captured their flag within the time limit.

Later in the game, battles will go on for extra turns. This will give you a chance to destroy them if possible.