[kulesh]

My son suggested it; we love it. I guess it's a subjective thing.

[vunderba]

Could be. I think part of the problem is that the larger it is, the more obvious that it looks like clip art.

It also calls "attention" to it - which could work if a large mountain represented a mechanical difference - more or richer ore, etc.

But I grew up playing classic tile based games (Civ II, Heroes of Might and Magic, etc), so I have a fairly critical eye for it.