Absolutely fair points, Turt21. I think the idea of this map should be to provide an strong ETO-like experience but at a compressed scale to support active MA-style game play.
On Kenai's map, Berlin would be located at approximately 10.13.2. Bombers lifting off from an airfield in East Anglia (7.13.3) would need to travel about 2.5 sectors to target. Each sector on this map is 25.6 miles, so its about 64 miles straight line to Berlin. At a cruising speed of 200 mph, this would take approximately 20 minutes real time.
A B-17 with 50% fuel and full bomb load climbs at about 1000 ft per minute, so climbing straight to target would get you there at an altitude of 19,000 ft, which is somewhat realistic. B-17s climb speed however is closer to 150 mph, so it would take longer. And you also have to level out at least half-sector before target so you can get the bombsite calibrated.
I think the dedicated heavy bomber players are used to this type of time commitment for a single mission in the MA. T I see them frequently in excess of 25000' so they are willing invest game time to climb to a very safe altitude. I don't have that patience myself, I typically only make it to 12-16000 before I'm over target.
Another thing I think needs to be kept in mind is the distance of the land borders between countries, to allow lots of opposing GV bases along the borders. In Kenai's map, the colored pie overlay's origin in central Italy means there is not much of a land border between the NW and Southern countries. If you compare to my proposed map above, you can see how I've tried to maximize land borders between all 3 countries.
Kenai, I'm especially encourage to hear your thoughts on Strat Target locations - I don't care for them grouped together way at the edge of the map, however this seems to be a characteristic of many MA maps. In my first map way above, you can see I've tried to spread them out through each country's domain, and put the large city at the site of a real world large city - London, Rome, and Berlin. In my proposed map, these 3 cities form a triangle and are roughly equidistant from each other.
I'd be interested to see the land area included at using 11x11 or 12x12 grid, if possible? I don't know the terrain tool, but am I correct in saying the maps either had to be 256x256 or 512x512? And Hitech has changed that somehow to support map dimensions that are OK as long as they are divisible by 2? Something like that?