I'd very much like to see your idea applied in some smaller battle. There's plenty of books written about smallish battles in which maybe 2000-5000 men have fought for both sides. It could be a very good idea to choose a battle of that size (I thinks there's lots of info on battle fought in the western front 44 and 45), make maybe 4x4 maps (a grid) that represents the battle area and divide the forces in battalions who fight in these areas.
Both sides would have the actual historical forces (including reserves). Then those forces would be divided to players, about one battalion for each. At least 50% of the forces would be in reserve when the battle begins and the overall commander would give some of the reserves to his subcommanders after every turn.
The battle would be battalion scale and maps relatively small. There would be only a small amount of turns and losses would be carried to the next battle. Overall casualty figures would be kept for both sides.
There would be penalties for those who don't return their turns as quickly as they have promised when joining the tournament. For example there could be a rule "at least one turn per two days" and if that is not followed, 5% penalty would follow for each day. Or something like that.
Only sky, time of the tourney-masters (and of course game mechanics:smoke:) is limit for the amount of role play elements that can be added in a battle like this. If someone comes up with a tourney even little like this, I'm in: small battles, "real" casualties, role play elements, based on historical units.
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Thexder