You can have armies actually moving from node to node, tracking their casualties and giving them reinforcements depending on your campaign rules. For simplicity, most node campaigns work on the basis that you have forces in each of the nodes you control and so don't have to track specific armies.
Node campaigns can be for any number of players and have any number of nodes, but it's important to remember with node campaigns, players can only battle other players with nodes adjacent to their own. With this in mind, it's best to run the campaign with players that you know get together regularly and give plenty of time between turns to make sure the players can get their battles played.
Much like territorial campaigns, node campaigns can have special scenarios and ongoing effects for specific nodes. It's also fine to have some of the interconnecting links harder to use than other ones, representing some routes such as mountain passes and swamps. Simply assign these routes a roll much like a save, so that you need a 4+ to use a mountainous path or a 6+ for crossing a swamp. It's also fine to give every route at least a 2+ requirement to all the links to represent some armies not been able move for a multitude of reasons.
Here's an example of a large node based campaign that covers an entire section, with the players battling over the systems that make up the section. You'll notice for ease, they've numbered all the nodes.
Contributed by Quantem Fear (Freebootaz)
Although node campaigns are good at representing the control of the map and the flow of forces, they don't really give you free reign to command your forces, for that you need a true map campaign.
Have you played a node campaign? add your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
