I'm learning the ropes on all of the little details I want in the terrain.  I figured if I'm going to do this and put my name on it, I want it to be something I'd to play in regularly.  Hence all the details.  I couldn't say this before, but now that I know what's doable (and now that I'm actually having successful experiments), I can say for sure that it will be nothing like anyone has seen in this game before, visually.  It will be quite a bit different.  I'll try to start posting results of the experiments on this thread.  
Also, now that I have the basics down, I'm going to tackle the easiest of the objects in this project: the two pontoon bridges.  Right after that I'm going to do the two land tiles on opposite sides of the river.