Of course you’re going to suffer consequences if you attempt to usurp power from the reigning authority and fail. That’s immaterial to this debate, and when you responded to me, I was providing a counter to the claim that “99% of the time” victory cannot be achieved by eliminating the opposition. The example of the Umayyads would seem to contradict that, right?
In any case, in the case of the game, you are the representative of the reigning authority and the Red Dawn is the usurping force that does fail in its bid for power, defeated in the attempt at your own hands. So if we can be confident that the Abbasids would have been killed in retribution for attempting to usurp Umayyad power and failing, that would again seem to conflict with the perspective that “if you kill your enemies you lose” is some kind of ironclad historical rule.
Not according to some people.