Yes, I'm browsing back through the threads, waking sleeping dogs ....

I had a really weird comeback situation a few years back, playing BKB's Supermod. As the Croatians I had conquered Italy, most of Central Europe and the Balkans - I had around 30 - 40 provinces. Croatian armies were poised for the Steppes, Anatolia and the Atlantic coast.

Heirless, I was frantically chasing princesses (I didn't know about unfreeze then) when my king died.

The whole map went white - rebel after rebel province - except, in Bohemia, sat one royal knight on a small stack. My new King! I couldn't remember where he came from - the crown was gone from his parchment when I looked at a save (I don't train RKs - just the heirs, so he must have been royal at some time).

From his single territory he looked about, and there were teched up armies of his former comrades, large and small, looming in Venice, Franconia, Poland, Hungary - everywhere he looked. Finances were in deficit.

I took a deep deep deep breath - and continued.

It proved to be a fascinating campaign, with lots of tough tough battles and a number of powered up re-emergences. I wonder if you can imagine the first 20 turns.

I've never had anything like it since - and I played every faction of BKB's mod in every period on my old computer (a few, the Portuguese, the Swiss, the Bulgarians kept CTD about 50 turns in, whatever I did).