Issues getting nations from multiple eras on my map Thread - Dominions 3: The Awakening

Hello,

I've been playing around with the map Dawn of Dominions these last days, changing the nations around to my liking.
Now I wanted to make a version that has nations from EA, MA and LA mixed together.
To do this I made a custom mod to allow the nations from EA and LA into the MA. Here the commands:
#selectnation 66
#era 2
#end
#selectnation 15
#era 2
#end
#selectnation 17
#era 2
#end
#selectnation 9
#era 2
#end
#selectnation 11
#era 2
#end
#selectnation 20
#era 2
#end
#selectnation 12
#era 2
#end
#selectnation 60
#era 2
#end
#selectnation 68
#era 2
#end
In the map I modified #allowedplayer and #specstart accordingly to reflect this, here the commands:
#allowedplayer 15
#allowedplayer 17
#allowedplayer 9
#allowedplayer 31
#allowedplayer 11
#allowedplayer 48
#allowedplayer 20
#allowedplayer 28
#allowedplayer 12
#allowedplayer 66
#allowedplayer 60
#allowedplayer 68
#specstart 15 121
#specstart 17 143
#specstart 9 147
#specstart 31 102
#specstart 11 76
#specstart 48 49
#specstart 20 18
#specstart 28 45
#specstart 12 5
#specstart 66 57
#specstart 60 86
#specstart 68 130

When I now create a game using the map, while the mod is active, all nations from #allowedplayer are selectable, so that works just fine.
However, I can not use more than 8 players total when adding new players to the game. There are 12 nations. So something is preventing me from adding 4 players, although the 12 nations are selectable when chosing my own nation.

Any ideas what I've done wrong, and how to fix it? That is, making 12 players able to play, instead of 8.

This is my first attempt at modding (in addition to map editing), it might be blatantly obvious, but I can't seem to find the error. (note: in a previous version I put 12 LA nations on the map, that worked just fine).

Thanks,
Payens

UPDATE
I found a way to get it working. I simply add all nations I wish to play to the mod, and set all of them to era 1. (before I only used the 9 not MA nations, and set it to 2 for those).
Somehow this fixed the issue.
Does anybody know why that is? I'm still curious

Edited by: Payens