diff -Nur -X/home/thue/freeciv-dev/freeciv/diff_ignore freeciv/server/civserver.c workdir/server/civserver.c
--- freeciv/server/civserver.c	Sun May 14 17:07:54 2000
+++ workdir/server/civserver.c	Sun May 14 21:42:33 2000
@@ -1706,6 +1706,13 @@
              game.playable_nation_count);
   }
 
+  if (game.max_players < game.aifill) {
+    game.aifill = game.max_players;
+    freelog( LOG_NORMAL,
+	     _("Maxplayers smaller than aifill; aifill reduced to %d."),
+             game.max_players);
+  }
+
   for(;game.nplayers < game.aifill;) {
      nation = mark_nation_as_used(nations_avail[myrand(num_nations_avail)]);
      pick_ai_player_name(nation,player_name);
diff -Nur -X/home/thue/freeciv-dev/freeciv/diff_ignore freeciv/server/gamehand.c workdir/server/gamehand.c
--- freeciv/server/gamehand.c	Sun May 14 17:07:54 2000
+++ workdir/server/gamehand.c	Sun May 14 20:42:36 2000
@@ -68,18 +68,16 @@
       map.start_positions[i].x=x;
       map.start_positions[i].y=y;
     }
-  }
+    for(i=0; i<game.nplayers; i++) {
+      start_pos[i] = i;
+    } 
+  } else {
   /* In a scenario, choose starting positions by nation.
      If there are too few starts for number of nations, assign
      to nations with specific starts first, then assign rest
      to random from remainder.  (Would be better to label start
      positions by nation etc, but this will do for now. --dwp)
   */
-  if(!map.fixed_start_positions) {
-    for(i=0; i<game.nplayers; i++) {
-      start_pos[i] = i;
-    } 
-  } else {
     const int npos = map.num_start_positions;
     int *pos_used = fc_calloc(npos, sizeof(int));
     int nrem = npos;		/* remaining unused starts */
diff -Nur -X/home/thue/freeciv-dev/freeciv/diff_ignore freeciv/server/maphand.c workdir/server/maphand.c
--- freeciv/server/maphand.c	Sun May 14 17:07:54 2000
+++ workdir/server/maphand.c	Sun May 14 20:46:06 2000
@@ -477,19 +477,14 @@
     i++;
   }
 
-  if (i < MAX_NUM_PLAYERS) {
-    freelog(LOG_FATAL, _("Too few starts %d (need at least %d)."
-			 " Filling out with 0,0 start positions."),
-	    i, MAX_NUM_PLAYERS);
+  if (i < game.max_players) {
+    freelog(LOG_VERBOSE, _("Number of starts are lower than max_players,"
+			   " lowering max_players."),
+	    i, game.max_players);
+    game.max_players = i;
   }
 
-  while (i < MAX_NUM_PLAYERS) {
-    map.start_positions[i].x = 0;
-    map.start_positions[i].y = 0;
-    i++;
-  }
-
-  map.num_start_positions = i; /* I really hope i is MAX_NUM_PLAYERS :) */
+  map.num_start_positions = i;
 }
 
 /***************************************************************
diff -Nur -X/home/thue/freeciv-dev/freeciv/diff_ignore freeciv/server/stdinhand.c workdir/server/stdinhand.c
--- freeciv/server/stdinhand.c	Sun May 14 17:07:55 2000
+++ workdir/server/stdinhand.c	Sun May 14 22:44:54 2000
@@ -2326,6 +2326,26 @@
       int plrs=0;
       int i;
 
+      /* Sanity check scenario */
+      if (map.fixed_start_positions && game.max_players > map.num_start_positions) {
+	freelog(LOG_VERBOSE, _("Reduced maxplayers from %i to %i to fit"
+			       "to the number of start positions."),
+		game.max_players, map.num_start_positions);
+	game.max_players = map.num_start_positions;
+      }
+
+      if (game.nplayers > game.max_players) {
+	/* Because of the way player ids are renumbered during
+	   server_remove_player() this is correct */
+	while (game.nplayers > game.max_players)
+	  server_remove_player(get_player(game.max_players));
+
+	freelog(LOG_VERBOSE, _("Had to cut down the number of players to the "
+			       "number of map start positions, there must be "
+			       "something wrong with the savegame or you "
+			       "adjusted the maxplayers value."));
+      }
+
       for (i=0;i<game.nplayers;i++) {
         if (game.players[i].conn || game.players[i].ai.control) plrs++ ;
       }