[DrPraetorious]

I agree that game-balance is less important than getting this game working at all. On the other hand, it's going to be a looooong game and it'd be nice if people felt it was reasonably fair.

How's about this.

Everyone makes six choices in descending order. Players are randomly assigned their first choice until everyone is either assigned (unlikely) or everyone's first-choice is taken.
Then, players are randomly assigned second-choice positions until all the second-choice positions are taken, and so forth.
Finally, players will be assigned to remaining positions at random.

If you get your first choice, you get nothing.
If you're forced to take your second choice, you get an extra scout with richness 4 random magic items.
If you're forced to take your third choice, you ALSO get +50% of your starting army and an extra commander.
If you're forced to take your fourth choice, you get 50,000 people in your capital. Yes, LA Ermor still gets this (you can pillage them for precious money to build forts/temples and soulless, it's actually good.)
If you're forced to take your fifth choice, double your starting army (instead of +50%) and the extra commander also gets richness 4 random magic items, in addition to the scout and population.
If you're stuck with sixth choice or a random nation, also start with a loremaster with a ring of water breathing and your capital has 60,000 people in it.

I'd be willing to administer all this if-need-be - it would only require customization of the map file.