What happened to my beloved Swiss

[Kraxis]

I have yet to experience such a thing... Not a single time.

I have only lost generals and family members through protracted melee, or unfortunate circumstances. Never through a successful charge, and I have charged Armoured Spearmen, DFKs and other tough nuts head on. In fact one general I tried to kill off managed to kill not only a unit of DFK head on, but also a unit of Armoured Spearmen. And this was before he got any traits that helped him.

I use my generals in all my battles more or less, and they generally suffer quite a few casualties in all.

So I would just say that you have been hugely unfortunate.

Did you check them out prior to battle? If they were from the same branch of the family they might have suffered from the same 'illness', which gave a hit to hitpoints. Also ifthey weren't the commanding general, they don't get the general's bonus to HP, and as such become just as fragile as their bodyguards (which isn't terribly fragile but more fragile than otherwise).