The Longest Year. What a wonderful turn of phrase At least my Longest Year wasn't as bad as voigtkampf's Great writing, by the way.

Thank you for your assistance, folks. I am still bogged down in that campaign, but I don't think I will be able to finish it before time runs out. And I'm not computer-savvy enough to trust myself to try to mod the game to allow me to proceed longer. It's still a blast fighting it out, though.

To answer your questions, Sun Tzui, the Byzantine Emperor was leading the attack on Malta (isolated on an island, obviously), but he survived the battle and did not die otherwise in my Longest Year. None of my heirs joined the rebellions, and no other events occurred that I noticed to trigger this phenomenon.

Hakeem928: You're right. Belisarius did not live in the Middle Ages. But woe to the Seljuqs if he had . . .