Those samples on the Wiki are worthless for making maps. They are much too low-resolution. Look at the large-sized maps on the Wiki; that will give you an idea of what size stuff you actually need.
Frankly, I'd just buy AoW if I were you. Works great under Wine if you don't have Windows, and it's only $6, IIRC.
Also, if you want to get a map approved for use by the dev team, don't just go and make one all on your own. Talk to us (or at least me), propose some layout ideas.
I don't really want to use the map editor, not for anything else than just getting samples of each terrain types.
Making maps in AoW, or through copy-pasting, is a tedious process, as one then needs to draw corresponding polygons. And then, with every minor tweek... huge hassle doing it all over.
With polgygons, I can just change a value in the table and that region instantly turns from rural, to woodland, to anything else. Much quicker to toy around.
AoW sequals aren't great, though. When graphic quality increases to add more depth and 3Desque look, textures don't work as good.
As for the resolution... I don't really think it's that much of a problem... The resolution of the original geographic maps was ridiculous, way higher than necessary. My screen is pretty large and with good resolution, and they don't fully display on it.
