You're jumping the gun a bit with the small version again. There's lots of graphical things I would fix with the large before starting on the small... It's much easier to get the biggest graphical issues worked out on the large before starting on the small, that way you won't have to duplicate everything you do on the small version.
For one, the background still doesn't work. You have a painted-on-canvas kind of thing going on here, which is not a bad idea as such, but the background image just doesn't look like it's painted - it looks like a photograph with some filters applied on it. I know, you may not have used "filters" per se, but if you think about it, there's no difference - the methods don't matter, only the end result.
Did you try G'MIC yet? It's pretty easy to install, it even has an installer for windows. It has several filters which can be used to make a photograph look more like a painting, and if you combine those with the texture you already have, you should come up with a pretty satisfying result.
Another thing, your region borders. I've already told you what's wrong with those so I'm not going to rehash it all here.
Then, one thing I'd pay attention to is the colour palette of the bonus areas. They just don't seem to match the background image - which makes the overall look lack consistency. Maybe go for more broken, natural hues? More browns, greens and grays, rather than the bright and dirty colours you have now.
