New to TOAW III

[Aditia Holdem]

After years of only playing PzC/MC and Combat Mission for my PBEM wargaming, I finally got around to picking up this game and am keen to start a match soon.

I have a few questions while I familiarize myself with the game, hope some of you are willing to kickstart me:

1. I am already annoyed at the what appears to be 1024x768 max resolution of the game (that is the actual map). Is there any way to have the map fill up my screen (1900x1200)?
2. Manual, should I read it before playing anything vs. AI?
3. Any must have mods? And what is the best resource for custom scenario's and such?
4. What version of the game is the one that people tend to use for PBEM?

Cheers,

Aditia