Most of you have at least once in your life played a de_rats style map. It's a map where the players are reduced to a size of a rat and play it out. Although even if the map is large, it would still be too small for empires commander maps, if mappers were to make a map where instead of a rat size, players are reduced to an insect size, the map would become larger instantly.
You do realize,that the players don't get shrunk but the map is built in large proportions, don't you?