Brrr, it's scary to imagine what will happen to the garrisons on my favorite map X)
[Only 2 consecutive reductions slightly spoil the quality; I need to explain how I do the outline... But I'm not at the computer.]
This might explain why Ganyshka doesn't have any problems with the background. His image was reduced after the background was removed, but the last two "sufferers" were initially the right size.
So, it turns out that I need to stretch them first, then reduce them? That's when the quality will definitely get blurred.