Merging digital strategy with Warhammer Minis

Is there a way that a game like Total War: Shogun 2 can be combined with a miniatures game like Warhammer to create an ongoing multiplayer campaign with both strategic and tactical play?

(Edit from the future: I mean from a game design point of view of merging digital and analogue worlds. It appears that in the time since I wrote this a Warhammer themed Total War game has been released.)

Two segments:

Online world map where players can build cities/conquer cities/build armies/move armies/etc. Turn based. Similar to Diplomacy or Shogun.
When armies clash a printable snapshot of the relevant terrain features from the local geography and units involved will be given. Players use this to setup an analogue Warhammer fight; setting up terrain and armies as dictated by printout. Play the encounter on tabletop and feed the results back into the game.

Goals:

Online component needs to be playable over multiple days without interfering too much into daily life. Miniatures fights should be suspend-able until weekends or some such as an ongoing event.

Idea whiteboard:

For online component:

Overall: Focus on only a few armies, small to mid size map,

Don't want to get caught up in a backlog of dozens of fights to auto-resolve (use the game's AI to estimate the likely outcome of a conflict and skip the fight) or play through on the table.
Best case scenario, all fights would be small/trivial/avoided to encourage auto-resolving or tactics instead of direct military force. Only 1, 2, or maybe 3 important matches per player per week should result.

Automatically use auto-resolve for any encounter of large army vs. small resistance.

Units must be precious. Low unit cap, high cost to replace, massive armies should be rare.

Most players should have the miniatures necessary to fight their battles IRL without spending hundreds of dollars on massive armies of varying units.
Unit caps adjustable based on group?

Would have to be smaller than a diplomacy map, or japan map. Decrease time involvement.

As a general rule, the online component should be small and simple. Most of the player's mental bandwidth and focus will have to be preoccupied with the tabletop miniatures.
It makes more sense for this to be primarily about the Tabletop Miniatures conflict, using a video game to give meaning and context to the battles, and future consequences for gaining or loosing territory. in a fight.

Would not work as a videogame first and foremost that occasionally gets stuck until players can resolve a fight, boring.

Would have to be a game capable of being staged over multiple days (IRL), turn based. One turn a day.
Diplomacy turn rules? Everyone makes their decisions for their turn blind to each other's (but can communicate/lie about intentions). Everyone's turn actions calculated at once.

PM system, for players to send and leave each other messages trying to convince them to do various things out of real time.

Shogun rules? Turn based, allows players to react to incoming invasions, sneak up on others. Better for tactics, but would require extra wait time and alerts as the game goes through everyone's turn one by one.

If game is zoomed in at the level of controlling a few armies on a few territories rts style, then diplomacy rules would cause blindness

Need some way of compiling what battles occur so that players can fight them later (on a weekend or some such)

Does gameplay halt when a fight between two players happens until resolved? Under shogun rules, this would mean no one can go until turn's over.

Under diplomacy rules, a series of fights would break out all at once- would require a massive tournament every round

Under shogun rules, players involved can decide to auto-resolve/run away. Diplomacy=too chaotic for such luck.
Could wind up in a situation where every turn a fight breaks out, need for a long series of miniature fights needing to take place.

If miniature fights are once per week, and gameplay halts, might create a backlog where one round would not end for weeks.

Perhaps a combo of diplomacy/shogun rules? Each day = 1 round. Everyone plays at once. Actions are segmented throughout day in real time. Example: Players can control their scouts at 8am onwards in real time, up to a given movement range for the turn. At noon until 10pm players can control their armies and work on upgrades/unit building/base building.

Upgrades/building is based on hours, not turns. If it's a 9 hour unit build that you start at noon, it will be done by 9 at night. If you start it at 3 or after, it'll be ready the next turn/day.

Armies too? Should all armies be restricted to moving before 11/12, or should it be based on # of hours sleep? If I set camp for the night at 9PM, can I start moving my army at 9AM? Or earlier with a fatigue penalty? Should I be able to attack at night while other players are sleeping?

Plays off of taking advantage of their normal daily routine requirements. Good because it's realistic and devious strategy? Bad because it may be abusable and unfair for someone who dosent need to wake up early? Good because it's balanced by their sleeping in?

Armies move in real time. EX: If I send an army to attack a province at 12:30, and someone else sends theirs at 2. Mine will be there first, and they'll see it. If we both move at the same time, we'll spot each-other. Battles/sieges last all day, so that if I attack a province, no battle will occur until end of-day resolutions, and another army moving to that spot at 2 will see me setting up camp, and may choose to attack me.

Battles are logged in order that they happen. In this EX, when the miniatures fight begins, It's me vs. what I'm attacking, then the new army vs. me.
Or should it be considered simultaneous? Fight starts as a 3 way?
Or maybe shogun style? When fights are collected at end of day, the time span between my assault and the oncoming army is turned into a minute timer before their re-enforcements show up?

When turn ends (10? midnight?), all the battles of the day are reported to each player via email, and players have the option of either selecting to auto-resolve the fight, or receiving a printable form with instructions on how to setup the terrain & armies for the miniatures game. Both players vote, with favor skewed to the miniatures game.

If miniatures is selected, game pause until results come back?

Perhaps offer multiple game setup options:

Game pause
Game continues on but armies are deadlocked until result is achieved (considered to be setting up command centers/bunkers/trenches, facing off for days without a direct attack.)

If this occurs, should it make it harder to press an attack?

Each turn = 1 week, not 1 day. Increased movement ranges/development time.
Deadlock with Auto-auto result if 3 days pass and no changes occur.

Idea is to create immersion- place player in daimyo/warlord's seat by making each day realistic. Get the army up and moving before noon, early morning, set up tent for the night or the units will get fatigued. Send word for cities to upgrade/reinforcements recruited. Order other units around throughout the day. When player is busy with other things like work/school, it's similar to the warlord being busy with paperwork, planning, hobbies, sieging. When you check back in and see things have changed, it's like seeing a new report by your scouts that about the current state of things.
Different races can have special over world powers/weaknesses that affect how players play the game, like an army needing less sleep and therefore being able to get up and move earlier than other player's, being able to dig in better trenches, so while waiting to fight become harder to attack, longer movement range, etc.

Another turn style idea: combo diplomacy/shogun rules, but each turn is a week long, and the interim time is a RTS. Instead of having a set movement range for every unit per turn or time of day restrictions on unit movement, every unit/army has a movement range limit that replenishes a little bit per hour. So I can move an army at 4 it's entire range, and later today move it again a little extra bit, or wait a day and move it again?

The longer a unit/army is stationed in one place, the more fortified it becomes (always less than in a city/castle, but like a trench, or a mobile/roughshod HQ/mines/gatling setup) = harder to attack successfully

Fortifications are left behind? Deteriorate over time?

Realtime, so another player could assault my army while I'm out. Would need for me to accept an auto result before the fight commences, or a vote for miniature battle.

If my army is attacked at night, doesn't have strong defenses, and a long time passes before voting on how to play out the fight, auto-auto resolve in favor of the attacker (the defender got ambushed without noticing it)
If army is attacked, attacker may choose to "surround and cut-off supply train". This essentially seiges the defending army. If defending army reacts and attacks, the defender will have a bonus because the attackers's considered spread out. (surrounding) If defender dosen't for a long period of time (all day), considered starved out and weak. Heavy attacker bonus.

Same approach vs. cities/castles, only longer wait time(whole week), no defender bonus for reacting, and instead of an attack bonus if time runs out, defending army is considered dead from starvation.

End of week all battles unresolved are collected, trench bonuses added, and reported for miniatures play.

For Miniatures:

Straight forward Warharmmer/other miniatures play. Units/abilities/terrain bonuses as it should be.
Online game printout dictates which units are involved on each side, terrain, and starting areas (defender in a castle, attacker surrounding defender, both armies on open field, trees and lake nearby, etc.)
Perhaps there should be a rudimentary online form of miniatures turn-based game for players to resolve quickly without needing to setup a full offline game/have all the miniatures/auto-resolve.

Complicated. With work to design over-world game, would be like programming two whole games.
Expensive
Are there any current digital versions of miniatures games that are a straightforward copy? Not like Warhammer 40k dawn of war, like just war-hammer, with, but online. Like Magic online.
Might be a problem as no one would pay for figures anymore. Expensive to develop.
Could see it getting boring online without being able to talk/make a hobby of it.

Paired with the online game, would present players with more of a story behind their battles. Each fight not the end all be all, but whole campaigns between players, with alliances and betrayals.

Perhaps in online game players could name a special hero character who has been with them for every fight, level up system. Adds value to characters through fights.