And thanks to my first opponent Narushima
It could have gone either way. At one point my main army was cut off behind enemy lines and had taken a mauling from a tough PD. My main income province had been lost to the Count and his spies had just started causing problems. Marignon then moved his larger blocking army to cover his capital and my army escaped. After that, even though he chased me all the way home, I always thought I should win as I was getting closer to my reinforcements and my recruitable Thugs give me an advantage in a low magic world compared to his mages.