I managed to get to over 128 turns playing as Araby by never reloading from autosave, nor using 'Continue Campaign' but reloading from other save slots.
Then i got a new character, who, because the city it had assigned him to had a full garrison, was placed outside it. There were enemy armies nearby. I had to save the game to do other stuff and when i reloaded later it immediately told me he had had a 'Heroic Death', but his unit remained on the campaign map with his face whited out. I moved them. Then the next army led by a captain i clicked on the game crashed and all my saves were screwed except some before battles, which crash as soon as the battle ends.