Hey all ^_^ I just woke up to give a look here. Well, seems we are still missing the same 2 slots.
I am now wondering how would the game turn if we just skip the water nations and play us, ten people. The water nations have a probably unbalanced start, they can expand without problems and without any connection between them on a large numbers of provinces while the land nations fight one against the other. I think it is the best solution for everybody; I'm gonna ask Ballbarian (the author of the map) if there is any problem with that solution
I'm just sorry I will skip the gentle offer of the most experienced players to help us filling the slots, but maybe it will be better for the overall balance this way.