Drive to the Border

"Well, that was a close run thing." the Marquis des Aix-En-Pains stated to his aide-de-camp as he surveyed the battlefield of Hook's Crossroads."

"Indeed Excellency," the aide averred. "Thought I doubt that the Duke will want to tangle with us again."

"Which is why we must strike!" the Marquis stated emphatically. Pass the word that we shall advance at once!"

The aide hesitated, surprised by the Marquis's precipitancy.

"Well go on." the Marquis prodded him. The aide rushed off. Within the hour, the army of Aix-En-Pains was marching to its border with Bad Schmaltzberg.

It has been a while since I played a scenario in the Emperor's Balls campaign. I played 2 of 3 scenarios about 6 months ago but (as is typical) never finished. This weekend I decided to play a horse and musket scenario (prompted by my completion of new artillery stands). I figured I may as well complete the campaign.
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As the Marquis's army (red) approaches the border, they are met by infantry and dragoons. The Marquis's infantry advances, supported by artillery fire.

But they are destroyed by the dragoons. The Marquis launches a cavalry attack to no avail. Reinforcements arrive for the Duke's forces.

Again the cavalry attack but are driven off.

The dragoons and fresh infantry cover the retreat of a spent Ducal batallion.

Another unit of the Marquis's infantry falls.

 The Marquis brings up his guns and unleashes a barrage against the Ducal line. The dragoons fall.

The Marquis's cavalry rashly rush into the gap.

Which gets plugged by a second dragoon unit. The cavalry is shattered.

Having suffered severe losses, the Marquis calls a retreat.
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Later that year, the Marquis and Duke met at the Emperor's Yule celebration. The Marquis crowed about his "resounding victory" over the Duke.

"Resounding victory?" the Duke scoffed. "You must have been miles from the battlefield or else you would have seen your troops fleeing across the border!"

"And how did I get to the border anyway? By thrashing your invading army!"

"Thrashing?! Goodness, you must be ill informed . . ."

At this point, the Emperor strolled by. "Please, gentlemen, this is a season of peace and good tidings. Let us put away all rancor."

Chastened, the lords reluctantly agreed. And as the Emperor departed, he added "at least until the next campaign season."

Notes

• Overall this has been a wasted week. I've been off work all week and hoped to get in multiple games, but I had things to do around the house and then succumbed to a bad cold. At least I was able to get in one game.
• And thus ends my first go-round with the War of the Emperor's Balls. It provided a very pleasing campaign. And as I mentioned before, the accompanying Simplicity in Hexes rules set works quite well.
• I was able to get my new guns in action. The red guns performed sterling service; alas the blue guns were stationed in the village and never fired.
• I did a very quick job on them, mounting one gun and one strip of artillerymen. I suppose it would look better if I cut the strips in two and mount half a strip on each side of the gun. I was lazy though and just stuck the whole strip on the base.

• I must say that guns are much nicer than Magister Militum's old artillery.