Haha, I thought I only had a couple of fave FH1 maps, but reading through this thread is one hell of a trip through memory lane. Didn't fully realise before how much FH 1 maps there actually were in total. And apart from a few exceptions they were all pretty cool. It really feels like yesterday since I was playing these maps but it has to be more than two years now. Even before FH2 came out I couldn't find any decent/populated FH1 servers anymore here in Holland.
I really miss the jap-maps.
Iwo Jima and
Tarawa being my favorite. There was just so much to do on those maps: dug-in stationaries, ships, tanks, planes, everything. Really liked the map design for those two.
Pavlovs House is one that comes to mind also. Really surprising to see that such a small map could stay so entertaining. Loved the constant flag switching (it rarely stayed capped by one side more than a couple of minutes) and the teamspirit you experienced when defending the house against german tanks.
Have some fond memories of
Karelia also. The victorious feeling when you finally conquered the little beach as the Finns...
The same for
Battle Of Stalingrad . Sometimes it could take ages for the Russians to get a foot hold on the beach, but it was all the more satisfying.
Man, I could go on for hours, but I guess my preferred maps were the more specific ones (like
Pegasus Bridge), compared to the more basic maps where you just have two armies go at it with tanks, planes and all. And the ones which took place in a sort of "forgotten" (or niche-)setting of WWII, like Karelia (or
Zielona Gora).
Hmm, before I get all mushy and emotional, let me just name two maps I miss per theatre and be done with it:
Pacific: Iwo Jima, Tarawa
Africa: My faves were Tobruk and Crete but we already have those in FH2.
East: apart from the three already mentioned: Seelow Heights, Eastern Blitz
West: Gold Beach, Arnhem (I'm dutch so there
)
Honorable mention goes to
Alpenfestung. I loved that one because of all the experimental hardware. Same for
Black Knight although I had the feeling that one didn't really catch on.
P.S. While going through the list of maps on the FH1 site I noticed that Sicily was missing. Was that one not an official FH map, or is it just not mentioned becuase it didn't fit in any of the theatres?