first off, it would be real time. the world would allways exsist, tho perhaps it would be wise to shut it off once in awhile, say...from the hours of (blank) to (blank). all players would constantly manuever their armies on the strategy map, and build land and troop ugrades at the same time. while your army is spending a month marching, you would zoom into a territory to take care of business. a little icon on the bottom of your screen would begin to flash, or your military advisor would warn you, if one of your armies reached it's destination while you were in city mode. when, during the course of your army's march, you run into an enemy army. real time would then be halted. diplomacy and spy interactions could still be accessed, but your armys would cease to move on the strategy maps. at this point, if you and your opponent only had one army each meet on the strat. map, you would just enter battle mode.
but if one or more of you had more then one army with you, you would push another little icon on the bottom of the screen that brought up the list of all players in the 'regular' multi players, the ones not in the campaign. you would then be able to private message players to hire them to control your extra armies. what is the incentive for mp'ers not in campaign to fight in campaign battles with armies that allready exsist?...the ladder system. in fact, the 'only' ladder system that would be available for mp. how you do in campaign, tells the world how good you are. once the reg. mp'er was hired, and now connected to the campaign mode of multiplay, the results of spies and diplomacy are now announced. info from your spies are sent to you. and if your diplomat had tried to bribe an army, it is now revealed as to wether or not it was successful. if your bribe was accepted, you are sent the info on who your enemy hired to fight the campaign battle, so you can pm him /or her, that they are really on your side. insert wicked smile here.
ok, from here, a small scenario. all players in the campaign battle reach the field. all players study the terrain. all players recieve a list of all players so they can mark who their archers will fire at, and which army your impetious knights will not attack. afterall, you don't want your troops to fire on, or attack enemy troops you bribed. insert another wicked grin now, the bribed army, still appears, as far as your enemy knows, as your enemy's ally. you may have bribed the army to do nothing at all, or bribed it to attack when you send the word. perhaps you bribed it to simply withdraw from the field? of course the bribed army general could still elect to do pretty much what it wanted, tho it would never be allowed to attack your men.(completely unable to target you.) you however, could still be treacherous, and after being assured victory, could still elect to attack the bribed army to recoup some of the money you spent bribeing them. yet another wicked grin for sanctifaction,...hey, do you really want a bribable general left alive? (warning....this will earn you the vice...treacherous, -one loyalty with most generals.) you can, in battle, destroy a lot of houses to lift your dread, and loot for gold, tho vices should be a bit harder to get then the gold end of battle. the campaign ladder advisor asks...how did hirelings do? you would answer...above expectations...at expectations, or below expectations. real time resumes.
this multi campaign, being largely clanbased.....(this post is getting long, so will pause it to hear imput, and wait for confirmation that the rest of my idea want's to be heard.) questions are welcome.