Hello,
i've noticed exactly same issue. When the Firebird with 8-person team reached the "eaglenest" map, game crashes back to the strategic (globe) view. The in-game console says something like: "unable to load character x" (x=certain number, different everytime) and also the spawn points (or spawn places) error is mentioned here.
With 7-person team, everything works fine - map is loaded and playable.
I'm playing 2.3 stable version, downoaded from sourceforge.net
Excuse me for my bad english, please.
Great game, you've made!