The Med has plenty of key battles. The trick would be finding a map area that combines enough of those areas, plus allied and axis airfields, etc. So, yeah that works. I'm trying to avoid having too much thought towards very minor areas of battle in WWII such as central Africa, Iraq, etc. Interesting history but limited in scale and scope (or bang for your buck).

China is super interesting but I'm having trouble finding an area that would work. It's also a lot of extra work because its not somewhere we've been (needs new textures, new buildings, etc.).

Icefire, if it is your first map project, I suggest to start with a smaller map, for example a Pacific Island, to learn the basics.
My suggestion - A northern Kurils map, showing Paramushir, Shumushu and the southern end of Kamchatka. The Japanese had based a large number of planes in the area and the islands were attacked regularly by USAAF bombers flying from Alaska. During the Soviet Invasion in August 1945 both sides used aircraft.

If you really want to start with a China map, Taiwan/Formosa with a small part of of the Chinese mainland would probably be the easiest area. Japanese planes based on Formosa bombed the Chinese mainland during the Sino-Japanese war and the island was attacked for the first time by Chinese bombers in 1938. In 1944 and 1945 there were large scale attacks by US carrier aircraft and land-based bombers.
But to be honest, I don't think such a large map can be done by one person alone, it has to be a team effort.

And concerning scale - I think it is important to do the map in 1:1. In my experience scaled down maps are often useless for creating historically accurate missions. For example I've once tried to build missions showing the Royal Navy raids on Petsamo and Kirkenes on the stock Murmansk map, but it was impossible, because the map isn't 1:1 and the fjords were much to narrow for torpedo attacks. In the end I had to use Mixx map of the same area in UP/HSFX.

(You know, red soil and wine, mare azzurro, olive trees, pesky Italian planes...:-D)[/QUOTE]

And don´t forget the girls!

New MTO maps will be just wonderful.
In Western Europe my favourite (besides the channel) would be southern or south-western Germany. Big raids since 1943 until the end of war. Lots of targets for the beautiful new B-24. And in Munich Gallands JG 44 was based, which would be a nice opportunity to fly Jets or FW 190 D.
Very beautiful landscape as well, even if you leave out Heidelberg Castle or Neu-Schwanstein :-P

My suggestions for il2 what must have of maps
Malta, Cyrenaica, Tunisia, Italy for Mediterranean front and Horn of Africa for East African Campaign
France, Belgium, Holland, Norway and the Channel for the Western Front
Minsk area, Rostov area, Kharkov area, Voronezh area, Maikop area, Grozny area, Malgobek area, Korsun–Cherkassy, Belgrade area, Budapest area, Vienna area and Prague area for Eastern front
And of course areas of Germany

IceFire,

May I suggest that you take a look at this thread? It may provide some ideas as to what maps (stock and mod) are available and which areas these maps cover.

http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=27841.0

A sample below - more within the thread:

http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...europe-map.gif

Cheers,

IMO the best choice is a Sicily + Malta map. The historical value of such a map would be huge, a war front from June 1940 to July 1943 with many possible uses. Here you can see the current status of the map and a selection of its airfields. Some are partiallly working already but a lot is still to be done...

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ps1ee4058a.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ps3641cb1f.jpg

Chinisia S.Giuseppe airfield (Borizzo in allied docs)
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ps6c3075a9.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...psb53371bc.jpg

Catania Fontanarossa*
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ps3890fc99.jpg

*note the wrong identification, as Gerbini was some kilometers to the west...
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ps4beb2165.gif

Castelvetrano
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ps923c100c.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ps0323da63.jpg

Trapani Milo
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...pse72760cf.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...psea7fc088.jpg

DISCLAIMER: this is not intended for 4.13

A 1:1 map of Sicily+Malta is a great choice indeed. This area is featured on at least four different mod maps but they're all scaled down (or so it seems to me).
As far as I know, there are two Channel maps out there, and one superb Western Front map. There's a nice map of the Philippines, recently upgraded for HSFX 7, and a map of China is in the works.

Of all possible maps, the one I've been waiting for most is that New Guinea map which had been previewed here some time ago. Any chance we get it?

I'll put in my two cents:

1) PTO - "Someplace in China" (perhaps around Kunming, or maybe Formosa), Southern Luzon Island (Manilla and points north), Northwestern New Guinea, Rabaul/Western Solomons, Western Carolines (Truk and Pohnpei islands), an interesting part of the Honshu Island of Japan (perhaps Kure & Hiroshima, or Osaka and Kyoto, or Tokyo and Yokohama).

2) MTO - Alexandria to Tobruk, Tripoli to Benghazi, Cape Bon (Tunis - Sfax - Lampedusa, Pantelleria), Southern Sicily and Malta, Naples to Rome (taking in Cassino and Anzio).

3) ETO - Calais to London, Breton Peninsula (Brest to St. Nazaire), West Central Netherlands (Rotterdam to the southern Frisian Islands), Rhine/Ruhr Valley (Koeln to Essen), East Prussia (Konigsberg/Kalingrad to Gdansk/Danzig), Ploesti/Bucharest

4) USSR/Eastern Front - City of Moscow, Rostov-on-Don to Krasnodar, Eastern Ukraine (Donesk), "South of Kursk" (Kharkov-Poltava-Cherkasy), Karelia.

Maybe a Lae, Nadzab, Cape Gloucester map would be good too. plenty of furious action around those prts.