Quote Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief View Post
Level XII: The Going Away Present
Definition: The battle’s going well, as planned. You’re all about to wrap things up, when – Surprise! Whatever remains of the enemy gets together and manages to kill a general. Suddenly your army is without a leader and the victory becomes an extremely bad taste in your mouth.

Best example: This is the most common loss, and thank God it’s so low on the list. After some deliberation, this one goes to the Siege of Bran resulting in the death of Sigismund von Mahren. This one gets the win over the Siege of Ajaccio and Herrmann Steffen’s Battle of Milan mainly because Sigismund was the lead general. There were other battles I could have picked like this, but they were more catastrophic and deserve their own categories below.
Oh, I think there's an even better example: the Battles of the Northern Forests. A relatively unremarkable battle by itself, except that at some point a flaming catapult shot killed Kaiser Jobst von Salza. Since this then resulted in the previously minor nobleman, Siegfried von Kastilien, becoming Emperor, it was something of a startling result... especially when you consider the chain of events that began with him taking the throne.