Looks solid! As for the colors, I prefer the German territories in gray the way you have them here. I remain partial to the original game board designs, before the switch was made to topographical with just a hint of color. I think there was a certain charm to the Classic map with its more vibrant color scheme. It was more inviting and easier to read at a glance. The muted colors of Revised were an eye sore to me. I like a high chroma/saturation politcal map for the gameboard. Topography has no influence on the gameplay in A&A, so I like a map that pops and catches the eye at a glance instead. Red Russians, Brown Brits, Green Americans, Gold Japanese, and Gray Germans, A high chroma blue for the sea and simple tan for Neutrals. To me that gives the map the feel of a boardgame rather than a complex wargame, (which is a good thing for an introductory board) where everything is easy to read at a glance for the start year 1942. I think the official gamemap is somewhat dull and offputting to look at in this respect.
There should also be more variation in color “value” (as opposed to variation in hue, chroma/saturation). The current map is a struggle for the colorblind when it is made so drab. I am not colorblind myself, but if you desaturate the map you can see why more variation in color value would be better.
Its important to go with either high saturation/chroma for the map, or high saturation/chroma for the plastic units. To give them both a consistent value (the same for each, so national units: national territory) And then to put the variation between different nations into the color “value.” For anyone who doesn’t know what I am saying, color value describes what the color looks like in grayscale when it is desaturated. Variation here is better than variation in hue (chroma/saturation) because it is easier to read, not just for the colorblind but for everyone. The same thing with the sea zones. Ideally the sea zone color should be at a markedly different value than that of land territories (I prefer lighter for the sea, darker for the land, basically the exact opposite of Revised.) :-D
Official 1942.2 went drab for both, which makes the board less exciting to look at, and represents a design fail in my view.
I miss the compass rose of the original Classic map, and wish they would bring it back.
I also find the ipc counter at the top annoying in 1942.2, I lament the loss of paper money. The ipc counter is less new-user friendly, looks silly when 2 or more nations have the same total ipcs, and overall is just a very poor use of precious space on the gamemap. Money was a hundred times better and more useful both for teaching new players and for simple tracking. I will never understand the logic of replacing money with a counter, you lose something important to the “feel” and experience of the game by getting rid of the cash.
But given what the 1942.2 map is OOB, this seems a nice complement. I just wish the design of the OOB was stronger. I still find the distortions around Europe Africa and Asia to be quite silly. It is definitely possible to make a map which is less cartoonish in its shape and depiction of the world without sacrificing space to house units. But I feel like they always go with the same ridiculous projection. There is a happier medium between mercator and A&A, but they have yet to pull it off to my satisfaction. :)