[jimkehn]

Actually, this doesn't sound right to me. After putting the Pretenders in the newlords file, and after loading pretenders and starting a new game, you should quit right there, and send the .trn files that were generated just for starting a new game. By hosting the way you just did, the players will have skipped their first turns, or so it seems to me. But as long as everyone skipped their first turns, no one will have an advantage.....except AI nations, if any, who will have taken their first turns.