Against all odds, I have done it!!

No, it's not "completed a book", although I wish it was. No, I've finally saved my own kingdom in "Medieval II: Total War".

First, the backstory. I played the English and took over Scotland to unite the land. All well and good, no? I decide to take my little royal self to a small, remote island down in the Med. sea and take over an island to begin my word domination.

At the same time, however, France was getting its butt throughoughly kicked by Spain. The French territories dwindled down to one puny island just north of mine. Well, in an act of what I thought was compassion, but was really stupidity...I surrendered the entire English mainland to France.

Yes, you read that right, folks. I gave England to France so now France had a bigger territory while I only had one small island.

Thinking I had done the right thing, I closed the game.

Weeks later, I reloaded it and was appalled at my decision. I knew there was only one thing to do: Fight France for my land again. I put my king, his family, and the army on the boats bound for my poor, currently-occupied-by-France homeland.

I managed to retake Ireland, then the northern half of England when I ran into trouble again. Apparently, the game also requires that your cities have governors to rule each city and I had hardly enough. Plus, France was a bit ticked off at my "betrayal" and enmassed her forces on me.

Battle after battle ended in horrible defeat and, in an act of desperation, I boarded the king, his family, and the army to send them BACK to that remote island (that was now held by the rebels) and began a hopeless endevor to beg France for her forgiveness.

France hated me at this point. Hated me SO much that she siced her entire FRICKIN' NAVY at me. Result? Every. Last. Ship. SUNK!! King? Dead. Army? Obliterated. If this were real life, this would be the naval tragedy to end all naval tragedies. Nay, even the Titanic sinking would look like nothing compared to that.

So, how on earth did I survive? Well, thankfully, I still had a small band of soldiers in the mainland. With nothing to lose, I gathered every single one of them and attacked.

Miraciously, they managed to take over all the cities and England was wholly mine again. Even more miraciously, the game gave me new governors, of which I dispatched immediatly to as much towns as possible.

And, that's where I am now. Slowly rebuilding everthing, got a new king and heir (former heir was on the land, thank god). Still at war with France, though, but at least she's not marching on the mainland, and I think I can still reason with her.

Well, it really taught me a lesson here. It's tough to be a ruler, and that's why I'm glad I'm not one.