[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Thanks, Pashadawg, but that's not the answer I'm looking for. Let me rephrase my question:

Roughly speaking (and I won't hold you to this), when will nations be assigned? Roughly speaking, how long after that will it be until we need our pretenders in and the game gets going?

I am specifically interested in how much time I will have to get ready once I'm assigned a specific nation, and whether I can afford to pick a nation I'm unfamiliar with or whether I'll need to select only ones I'm already ready to play.