Agree with Neoncat. The random seed can sometimes get stuck.. I had a general get something like 3 points of arse in 3 turns (4% chance each turn to increase 1 point) and I've had generals whose drink never went beyond the first level for 40 years. (4%).

And about the "anti-exploit", as it is very easy to avoid it. If you try to assassinate someone with a 5% chance and fail, you will always fail in that situation no matter how many times you reload. But, you reload and then do another action. Diplomacy, battle, spying etc. Then the random % for the assassination is assigned a new value, which might just be a successful one and you will kill that 10 star enemy king. If not, rinse and repeat until the random assigned value of your assassination passes the skill-test.

Civilization 4 uses the same system. If you save before attacking an enemy unit with your own, it will always be the same battle result if you reload. Because the random seed is not randomized every time, to make things smoother the CPU already knows what will happen (every action for every one of your agents on the campaign map in M2TW is already determined if it will success or fail.)

In Civ4 Ffiraxis hadded an option in the patch that allowed players to have the game randomize the seed after each reload. Meaning if your supertank got killed by an enemy longbowman, you could reload and it would get a new chance.

that said, somehow seeds seems to "get stuck" in M2TW.

It sure brings a new perspective to the game for some, learning that the outcome of their assassin mission is already determined but they will have to try to see the result. :)