The hay field and green on the old map were a little heavy. You could have kept them and lowered the opacity a little. maybe added a layer with a nice texture below that layer.
I liked the legend in the second version just maybe added the three zombie soldiers on the right hand side and lowered their opacity a little more.
The skull with the title and the dead soldier with the title are a little overpowering in my opinion.
The open hexes seem like they would be easy to loose site on. You could have kept the hexes and just lowered their opacity. You could have also added a one pixel white line on the outside of the hexes and lowered the opacity of that layer to about 30 percent and that would have mellowed out the hexes.
On the new map the trees need more green on top. They look like cut out of lungs.
the shadows need smudged more and the layer on that needs the opacity lowered a little more too.
I like the dirt road on the first and second version better.
The stone wall looks a templated or jpegish. I would try to draw these by hand.
These are just my opinion. I have not been doing this for too long so don't take what I say to heart.
Over all you are doing a great job. The concept of the map is awesome.
I know how hard making maps for gaming can be the people you are making them for can be critical.
You have to realize though that they are only trying to help you make the best map you can.
keep up the good work buddy.