From my point of view, those dules will be applied to naval battles, if the systems allow it. When the ships are very near one and the other, one could try to "abord" (not sure about the right word to describe it) the other ship. They could use powder-guns, and then use swords and engage in fight (and duels maybe). And the generals could use a bit of training to improve their skills.

Or they could use the real duels to make good animations for battle in-game.