I admit I know nothing about tactics and such. To me the map looks plain ugly, sort or an artificial island built by a filthy rich evil Dr. Buzzsaw in a cheap James Bond movie clone. The only way I can look at it is to zoom into the map so I can't see the circular saw pattern. What next? A daisy with flat petals and a rough center? Sunflower map?
I like maps like Baltic and Mindanao, where I can give places names. I don't care about a certain corner being "the losing starting point". After all, the countries rotate on those maps and on the other hand, learning how to win despite the disadvantage should provide challenge to the more tactics oriented, too.
There's not too many areas in the world where you could set three countries, naval vessels, tanks and planes in a balanced way. Aside the Baltic map the Great Lakes area might provide a similar experience.
During the years I've played with the idea of taking a known place in the globe and triplicating it in a kaleidoscope. A triplicated peninsula could be pointing both outwards and in, depending on what kind of a sea is preferred. Think about three Italies or Greeces protruding into the Trediterranean Sea... Or a clover like Iberian peninsula... Real landscapes, real elevations, fields positioned in recognizable places... If I only could make the maps!
