All troops dying instantly when opening a battle

[Tanis]

I'm new to this so bare with me. I have the english Atari verison with the 1.7 patch. I have played up through most of the Dwarven Kingdom without any problems except the "not being able to talk to anyone" bug, but that was solved with the 1.7 patch. But at the same time that the "no talking bug" occured so did another problem that is not being solved by the patch. When I try to open up a fight with any creature now the fight opens and all of my troops die instantly. No battle, no choices, no nothing. It just says that all of my troops were defeated and then I either get sent to the starting castle or to the screen that gives me the option of "load game" or "next". I haven't sean any other threads with this problem, any suggestions as to what is occuring?