Flying artifacts

[VballMichael]

Struggling with whether this is a game mechanic, a flaw, or a philosophic issue.

On a few occasions now, I have recovered Bats or Pegasi (I know the encounter is Enigma, but do not know if it is a flying artifact, a portal, or a free wizard).
Then, because I have a flying artifact, I cannot move over water and that order fails and all subsequent actions (740 and 799) then fail.

Maybe I just have to waste an order when I investigate an Enigma unusual if I am then moving through water (so add a 729 order to my turn just in case?).
It seems that my group should be able to move normally like any other group (just because we have the bats does not mean we cannot walk). This is especially true where the bats are with a large group which cannot fly anyway. I know we are done with programming changes, but this one has annoyed me at least 3 times recently .

[Jumpingfist]

I actually wasted a couple orders this turn in a game to 699 then 701 the artifact out of a group so I could go into the water. Lucky at least the order checker does flag it if you already have the artifact. But I had the same issue find the artifact then mess up the turn because you can not go on water especially annoying when you are not even able to use them.
It has been explained before it is as intended but still a rather annoying change.

You do get the benefit of flight so no earthquakes vs your group. Not sure if it applied to army plus size or not though.

[Atuan]

So much this.  Only impacted turns in test games for me so far but still.

[HeadHoncho]

Same problem. I think it was a neat nuance to try to give up to a division-sized group the benefit of flight, but in practice it has become a bit of a pain.

[unclemike]

Well, you could always investigate the encounter with more than 5 brigades then your group won't become a flyer from the artifact. Keep in mind that a group may gain/lose its flying ability at any time during the turn: transfers, reinforcements, ...etc. so you may want to account for any changes like that. Flying groups receive nearly the same bonuses as dragons do so earthquake/wall of fire spells have no effect on you and your group also gains the +20% bonus attacking a pc (by flying over it's walls). So there's some nice benefits in attaining flying status for a group compared to the slight chance of the encounter being on water (or moving to water on that particular turn)...