Erm, RTW has a mapeditor? That thingy you use to make SP/MP scenarios can also be used for just a map. I noticed some glitches (you should see the unofficial editor in STW, boy those were the days), but it's pretty good.

Agree, user should be able to decide how large the play area is. I may be mistaken, but when you play a 3D battle a part of the campaign map data is used to render (realtime) a battlemap. But only a small part of it is made available for the game. The part outside the Red border would be playable if it wasn't for the border.

The user should be able to create settings based upon the unitsize he uses, his 'realism' requirements or desired difficulty. When you play a heavy infantry rich army and fight against a horsearcher nomad tribe, you may want to help yourself and keep the area small. If it's the other way around you may want a large playarea to make the most of hit, run, exhaust and destroy tactics. Is this cheating? Sure, just like sitting in a chair, drinking cola and playing war. Do I care? No.

Edit: to enable editor in RTW (should work in BI too). Create a shortcut and edit its properties. add -enable_editor to the target. Result "C:\RTW\RomeTW.exe" -enable_editor Start the game with the shortcut, the Battle editor is in the options menu.