[Quitti]

Good luck with the game. A few suggestions though. Like GrudgeBringer said, being too democratic as a game leader is not a very wise choice - Picking era and the player amount, how they pick nations (random or self-pick) and mods to use + diplomacy rules (machiavellian or must-adhere-to-diplomacy) gives a fair guideline to people wanting to join the game.
I'd like to suggest using CBM 1.6 and Streamers&Standards mods for the game. I also prefer to have slightly increased magic sites to give some thought to magic in the early-midgame - though that might still give an upper hand to those with experience in the game should they jump in here.
For player amount, 8-12 is easy enough to handle, but there is only a couple of maps I'm aware of that fit those amounts of people well enough in a somewhat balanced way.