The one thing I can stress to you is that even if all the reference books say, "this area of the desert/steppe/plain" was almost completely barren and the enemy had a hard time of it..." Please remember that this is a game, a fantastic game but still a game with limitations.
Your main effort should not only be how "historical" your battle/map is, but you should also strive to make the battle fun. Plain and simple. I don't know anyone that likes to play a scenario/operation that makes you march your guys over competley barren ground into murderous fire. I dont care how "flat and featureless" the books say the ground was, there are ALLWAYS areas and folds in the ground to provide some cover.
If you get the map right, the rest will be a lot easier to get right.
My $.02