@Aramisdante It's right next to the GRID button. And don't worry - I had to really look for it too.

Try pressing the tab key while you have the command in operation.

It's not generally done, but easy enough.

Add a CLOUD sheet above all but the TEXT sheets, and add a largish blur effect to it. Then either add circles of pale colours (not all white), and/or use the freehand drawing tool with a line width set above zero to scrawl on that sheet in similar off-white colours.

Here is the smoke from a chimney stack done using scribbles and a blur.

That's fair enough - about the towns fitting in a single hex. I would recommend using the smaller symbols though, so that they are clearer. For instance call a hamlet a village, a village a town, and a town a city. That way you never have to fit a whole actual city symbol in such a tiny hex. Squished up symbols look bad.

Is it possible to mess with the shadows on the strips?

If it is, then does it look better with longer shadows to cast the back of the strips in more shade?

Also, I think some of the labels are escaping into the fresh air over the edges of the strips.