Ones that got away

[matteus the inbred]

i don't need CTD to rob me of a decent position! recent French campaign, fighting the evil dastardly Spanish...their king repeatedly (and i mean about five times) gets his army killed, gets surrounded and then runs for it and gets away. the list of cowardly vices got so long it's amazing he could persuade any of his troops to go anywhere near a battlefield. on one occasion i sat on a big hill with no arrows left and watched at least 800 Spanish troops advance, run away in panic, advance, run away in panic and so on until the time ran out. however, just as i was looking set to win and finally kill the little b*stard, he died of an illness (probably a heart attack from all the running), his faction collapsed and the Almohads and Sicilians split Spain between them, leaving me sitting in the Pyrenees shouting 'no fair!' all that fighting, all those victories, and because i couldn't kill him on the field i got nothing.
on a more relevant to the topic note, i often can't fight large battles with three or more factions on the field or with both sides having reinforcements due to my graphics card being a bit rubbish. in the same campaign this led to my crusade losing an autocalc'd battle and thus the objective. coupled with the Spanish setback, this in turn reduced my king's influence from 8 to 1, and shortly thereafter to zero thanks to a needless defeat in Cordoba. naturally, my next heir was a slobbering idiot and no-one wants to ally with me now.