DougEfresh Two things come to mind for me, and I'm not an elf.
They don't know that Mages are bugged, so they keep hitting without knowing and assume it's fine. If it is bugged Thane would tell them to stop.
The game has to keep going for them, they can't just not use their most powerful units not knowing if they are bugged. Should they disband all of them so that in case Mages are bugged and someone attacks them and it's unfair?
If they know it's bugged, then yes they should stop. That's like when the EQ bug hit and the person knew it was bugged and slammed everyone they could. But this is different because in this case Thane knew immediately and hasn't said to stop. If he did, then yes they should and Thane would need to fix things right away.
I am very curious is there really is a bug or if it was the combination of spells and defense advantages mixed with exceptional luck that caused it. I saw people fail castle wins on players with 9 castles, that's not a bug (likely) just bad luck. Maybe this was bad luck too? I don't know the answer, but I want to.