Sounds good, let us do this thing (I would like to play).
Yeah, if you want to bid for nations (or draft for nations), I need to randomize (or fix) the start locations.
This might be a good idea anyway, since then we can assure that allies start out adjacent. Or non-adjacent

, which actually I think works better.
Code:
A B C
B C A (with wrap)
Means that each player is adjacent to all four of his enemies! Doesn't that sound like fun?