I can't be the first person to notice this, right? Is this news so old that I just can't remember it?

Edited for emphasis:
"Combat
...Combat is resolved in 4 phases:

1. Specialist Phase - All specialists apply their abilities based on their combat priority. A specialist with lower combat priority will apply their ability before a specialist with a higher combat priority. Specialists with identical combat priorities apply their abilities simultaneously.
2. Shield Phase (skipped in sub-to-sub combat) - Shields protect outposts by destroying attacking drillers. If an outpost's shields have a charge of 8, they will destroy 8 of the attacker's drillers and get completely drained. If there are only 5 attacking drillers, all 5 are destroyed and shield charge drops to 3 (8 - 5 = 3).
3. Driller Phase...
4. Capture Phase..."

Does anyone see where I'm going with this, before I even upload the combat preview image?

The game doesn't update the loss of shields due to the queen's death, right?
I feel like this is more for clarity's sake than anything. If I look and see I have 30 shields, my first reaction is to think I keep those 30 shields in combat. Sure, if I think about it, it does make sense to lose the shields, but how many new players will think about it?
Besides, I view this as more of a pseudo-simultaneous combat. The shields and specialists happen "at the same time," except if the specialists do something to end the combat, like with a martyr. Kind of like Axis & Allies' combat system, if anyone has ever played that.

I agree that the way it works is actually for the best. My complaint is thart just isn't what it says (that's why I'm saying the description should be rewritten, not that the mechanics should be changed).

How would you rewrite it?
I feel there is a quite few descriptions that let details slip through the cracks. Keeping it simple by omitting the sub paragraphs.
More or less curious on how you would do that without making the assassins description to long or bogged down with details.

It might make more sense to alter the rule book than the assassin description.

probably in the specialist part:

"Specialist Phase - All specialists apply their abilities based on their combat priority. A specialist with lower combat priority will apply their ability before a specialist with a higher combat priority. Specialists with identical combat priorities apply their abilities simultaneously. Shield lost due to loss of a specialist will not occur till the combat ends."

...or we could just cheat:

"Specialist Phase - Generally, [a]ll specialists apply their abilities based on their combat priority..."

The nice thing about the cheat is that it technically addresses the Sab's rule breaking mechanics as well.
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Or, if there ever is a day where the specs are rebalanced (unlikely) the assassin mechanics could be altered to follow the rules, but we would only be given 1x instead of 2x. ... but perhaps that would make her too much like the elder.