Thanks for the encouragement Nigel,

I've prepared a very simple map on the lines proposed above. Theres room on it for 6 players and I should be posting it in the PBEM forum soon.

For those interested in technicalities

I think starting armies would clock in about the 15000 denarii scale, Each captured province would provide maybe 500 denarii a turn, whilst home provinces (Cities) would rake in about 2000 denarii.

There would be a 20 unit per province cap, (players wanting to increase on this would have to make alliances and have there allies move extra units in).

People wanting to sign up for the campaign would have to not mind fighting when outnumbered, defending doomed cities, or taking on every over player in the game on at the same time if they were really unfortunate, I imagine players quitting halfway through a campaign (or even worse an online battle) because they were losing could be a problem.