Yaaaay, newspaper.
Hmm, I have never played napoleon but I have played other total wars and they seem to take a while. I don't see much issue with number of players, but you will only be getting, at most, one person actively participating in tactical combat as it happens. A small map with lots of starting tech might not take so long, and yyou could give it a try I suppose, and simultaneous turns would leave you only waiting on the slowest player, which could get irritating but it would be better than a purely turn-based cycle. but definately keep the map sizes low, the turns can take quite a while to compile after things develop a bit, it can take minutes just to process a single battle... Also it can get a tad buggy in places, so keep a backup save handy...
