Hey y'all.

I am currently working on a map project that is giving me a lot of trouble. I'm creating a custom campaign setting for the Mongoose Runequest II RPG called Albion. Albion is intended to be a fantasy counterpart of England just after the Norman Conquests in much the same way that the Empire in Warhammer Fantasy is fantasy counterpart of the Holy Roman Empire at the dawn of the Renaissance. To this end I've tried to create a large island with a similar topography to the British Isles but different enough to be interesting.

I have been trying to use CC3 and I am not getting good results with it. No matter what I do, I just can't get the hills, rivers or coastline to look right. Another problem is that in order to make the town names legible, I have to create an absolutely massive file.

I've come to you asking for some advice. I have some experience using Photoshop Elements 8 for photo editing. I am seriously considering Photoshop but it would be a major purchase so I want to get some more information about it. Would Elements work? I have also noticed that you seem to be using earlier versions of Photoshop for your cartography. Are those better?

Attached is the current draft of my map in CC3 so you can see how far along I am. I look forward to your advice.
Albion_3_forweb_small.JPG