Thoughts on a starship campaign

While one-off battles are fun (especially if there is some sort of in-game backgroud to justify the fight beyond the usual line-'em-up-and-knock-'em-over), these games often devolve into meatgrinders where players throw all their assets away on the last turn because they have nothing left to lose.  I'd like to run or play some games that reflect "reality"--whether historical or fictional--a little more closely; matches where one side might flee to fight aother day when its commander realizes they are outclassed or where an admiral pulls ships out before they become too damaged because there's another battle looming.

I'm thinking of two approaches for the starship campaign I'd like to run:  The first is a traditional multi-sided affair in which each player allocates a certain amount of ships to attack and/or defend multiple objectives; I envision this type of game will eventually end with one side victorious over the others.  Call this choice the Admiral's Game (an extension of this is a system for shipbuilding, industrial development, and technology research: the Accountant's Game--fun, but too much work for me to actually run).

The second idea is closer to a traditional role-playing game--each player starts as the commander of a small starship and--with time, effort and a bit of luck--can get promoted to, buy or capture larger and larger ships, and eventually lead a squadron or even a fleet.  Such a campaign has no specified endgame, and could run indefinitely.  This would be the Captain's Game.

As I'm not sure which game I want to use for starship combat, I need to make the campaign system rules-independent.  But it should easily translate across rulebooks.  Here's what I have so far: Each player starts with one captain.  Each captain has four attributes: spacefaring, crew, leadership, and luck. 

• Spacefaring refers to all skills: piloting, navagating, electronics, shooting, and so on.  This might affect initial setup, initiative, or other scenario-specific factors, depending on the referee.
• Crew represents the total capacity of the ship's personnel.  This number will start out at 100% and can change during a battle and afterward, depending on a captain's performance.  Note this is an abstract number, as a destroyer at 100% crew has less personnel in absolute numbers than a dreadnought.  Crew percentages below 100 are usually handled by the combat rules; a cew percentage of more than 100 percent will not affect a ship's efficiency, but will help in replacing casualties after a battle or assigning prize crews to captured ships.
• Leadership is what it says on the tin: it affects how a captain recruits and maintains a crew.  It also affects how well subordinate captains in other ships follow orders, as well as influencing negotiations with nonplayer entities.
• Luck stands for karma, fate, or script immunity.  Mechanically, this attribute allows a player to reroll a single die roll, once per game, with a modifier equal to the captain's luck.  Alternatively, once per game a player may reroll the opponent's die roll, modifying it by their luck.

Success in battle can increase these characteristics; likewise, poor performance could decrease them.  Beginning captains are not allowed any vessel of destroyer size or larger; this means a starting player gets a scout, corvete, frigate, starbomber or armored pursuit ship.  Successful missions can lead to promotions and larger commands (including multiple craft), or a captain might reflag a captured ship, leaving a trusted subordinate in command of the original vessel.

What do you think?  Does the Captain's Game sound like something you'd be interested in?