Wargame map (Battletech, 6 mm games)

[Whitar]

Yep, I'll add markings and hex names/numbers later, that was only a sketch Hand drawn maps look so great, but take a lot of time and practice.
There were some tutorials I used to make continental maps, here's a photo. I want to make something more real and preciese detailed, matching the wargaming system. I downloaded many from top to bottom view trees, so no problem with the vegetation, but creating realistic slopes and terrain curves seems so complex using only a set of brushes and styles. It is ok with 1:1000 scale, and what can I do with bigger maps, where you need to escape from randomness? How is it possible to lay down nice clumps of grass and bushes, looking the way they look in nature enviroment, and the correct use of light and shadow on stones, mountain peeks, not talking about the correct textures for everything without using 3d modelling? I'll pin some examples, this is what I'm up to, they are surelly done in Ps, the site is www.worldworksgames.com

If someone is interested, that's the way I made the hex map above - I've drawn the height map in photoshop, as a displacement map for 3ds max, then, used blending modes to create textures. There are some other ways to do the right texturing, but that one is ok too. In the end, I turned again to photoshop and added hexes. But this method requires rendering in good resolution or the texture detail will be lost