salt: init.sls with included states fails with more than one, 'Template was specified incorrectly: False'

Description of Issue/Question

This applies to a problem with the 2018.3.1 version and I have a 2nd server built identically except for having a different version of salt. The same state files exist on each server. Each server runs as a masterless, stand-alone minion.

I have 2 separate Virtualbox Ubuntu 18.04 VMs:
Server 1: Salt 2018.3.1 installed Server 2: Salt 2017.7.4 installed

I have a directory named ‘common’ containing an init.sls file and several sls files that are included by init.sls in the same directory.

common/init.sls:
     include: 
        - common.file1
        - common.file2
        - common.fille3

SERVER 1 & SERVER2:

I am able to run each of the included sls files individually with success

salt-call state.sls common.file1

However, when I call the directory for the init.sls file

salt-call state.sls common

it fails.

[INFO    ] Loading fresh modules for state activity
[INFO    ] Fetching file from saltenv 'base', ** done ** 'common/init.sls'
[ERROR   ] Template was specified incorrectly: False
local:
    Data failed to compile:
----------
    Specified SLS common.file2 in saltenv base is not available on the salt master or through a configured fileserver
    Specified SLS common.file3 in saltenv base is not available on the salt master or through a configured fileserver

I have tried changing the order of the included states… no difference. I commented out all but 1 included file (I rotated which state I kept)… then it worked.

ALL of these states work without issue on SERVER 2 with salt 2017.7.4

Versions Report

SERVER 1

Salt Version: Salt: 2018.3.1

Dependency Versions: cffi: Not Installed cherrypy: unknown dateutil: 2.6.1 docker-py: Not Installed gitdb: 2.0.3 gitpython: 2.1.8 ioflo: Not Installed Jinja2: 2.10 libgit2: Not Installed libnacl: Not Installed M2Crypto: Not Installed Mako: 1.0.7 msgpack-pure: Not Installed msgpack-python: 0.5.6 mysql-python: Not Installed pycparser: Not Installed pycrypto: 2.6.1 pycryptodome: Not Installed pygit2: Not Installed Python: 2.7.15rc1 (default, Apr 15 2018, 21:51:34) python-gnupg: 0.4.1 PyYAML: 3.12 PyZMQ: 16.0.2 RAET: Not Installed smmap: 2.0.3 timelib: Not Installed Tornado: 4.5.3 ZMQ: 4.2.5

System Versions: dist: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic locale: ISO-8859-1 machine: x86_64 release: 4.15.0-20-generic system: Linux version: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic

SERVER 2

Salt Version: Salt: 2017.7.4

Dependency Versions: cffi: 1.11.5 cherrypy: unknown dateutil: 2.6.1 docker-py: Not Installed gitdb: 2.0.3 gitpython: 2.1.10 ioflo: Not Installed Jinja2: 2.10 libgit2: 0.26.0 libnacl: Not Installed M2Crypto: Not Installed Mako: Not Installed msgpack-pure: Not Installed msgpack-python: 0.5.6 mysql-python: Not Installed pycparser: 2.18 pycrypto: 2.6.1 pycryptodome: Not Installed pygit2: 0.26.2 Python: 3.6.5 (default, Apr 1 2018, 05:46:30) python-gnupg: Not Installed PyYAML: 3.12 PyZMQ: 16.0.2 RAET: Not Installed smmap: 2.0.3 timelib: Not Installed Tornado: 4.5.3 ZMQ: 4.2.5

System Versions: dist: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic locale: ISO-8859-1 machine: x86_64 release: 4.15.0-20-generic system: Linux version: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic