Automating the map creation process
There are several tools available that allow you to quicken up the map creation process. By default new territories are given an automatic center point that is the middle of the territory. Some links on this page may pre date this feature.
Vision creation
You could just start with a map in SVG format. These can be most easily found on Wikimedia Commons or a Wikipedia in your language.
Various raster (ie., not SVG) maps are viable for conversion to SVG format - two most used tools for this are potrace (bundled with Inkscape, available as Path -> Trace Bitmap.. command) and AutoTrace (available for online use here). The clearer the map, the better results you can get - single-color borders on single-color background, or differently colored territories, work best.
Centerpoints
A tool that can create centerpoints is available on forums: http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID=2452. It calculates the centroid of every territory-polygon and places the centerpoints. It does not work correctly on multipart territories.
- Source code (in Ruby) is available here: https://github.com/MatmaRex/Warlight-Tools
Connections
A tool that can create connections is available on forums: http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID=2668. It checks every pair of territories and every pair of their points - and considers them neighbors if the distance between any pair of points is less than 5 pixels. It does not work correctly on multipart territories, can take a long time to finish (up to a few hours on large maps), and may be overzealous, connecting territories that don't actually touch (but are pretty close).
- Source code (in Ruby) is available here: https://github.com/MatmaRex/Warlight-Tools
It is possible to test the connections using the map testing - territory connections mod rather than issuing orders or clicking each territory manually.