I think it sucks that starting positions can't be set, I started playing the Civ3 included World Map (huge) scenario only to realize (approximately after 35 turns mind you) that I (India) was on the same continent as the Americans, which happened to be North America... how ridiculous.
Doesn't work. I created my own scenario using the large world map that comes with the game and erased every starting location except the one I wanted to start on. But when I launched it, I still showed up in random places on the screen.