(informal) fail; be struck by some misfortune.
Now, if you took on, all by yourself as a released OT - we don't know anything about cleared OTs but as a released OT; we can merely guess - if you were to take on any part of this civilization, and I would say even the worst wogdom that had just been organized as a new democracy, I think you would eventually come a cropper because it's the individual up against the organization.