[Edi]

He used GIMP. Put all the different stuff in different layers so editing any particular detail never affected anything else, and then merged them. 55 different layers and a file size over 100 MB before turning it into a targa, as I recall...

Now that's a map that has been crafted with love, and having seen quite a few of the beta versions, I can honestly say that the end result is polished and polished again. Pretty fun to play on as well, there are some really strategid chokepoints, but generally you won't be immediately boxed in.

The northern waste region also has a couple of startable provinces, so getting one of them can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what nation you play and so forth.

Edi