Right. Well I have just finished playing rather poor games and have managed with all defaults:
No DLC,
UK - Implemented new policies, altered and cancelled existing policies. Changed members of the cabinet. Just skipped turns and got all the way to the next election without any issues.
With All DLC,
USA - Changed cabinet, altered existing policies, crashed after implementing a new policy. Froze out the computer.*
USA - Changed cabinet, altered existing policies, implemented new policies and skipped a few turns. Was assassinated.
Germany - Changed cabinet, altered existing policies, implemented new policies, skipped turns and made it all the way to election.
With all DLC + the mods I usually run.
UK - ran all the way to the election without any problems, doing all the things listed above.
*The problem is certainly with the game.
When it crashed out for me it not only froze the game, it locked up the machine itself. Even though the computer said the CPU was only up to 47% before it locked up. Forcing me to restart the laptop manually as it would not respond at all.
The only thing I could find when I was looking through the games debug report was a constant call for
"
Failed to find neuron:.\src\SIM_Neuron.cpp 420
Failed to find Blackmarket for Publictaxreturns,:.\src\SIM_Neuron.cpp 384
"
Checking online I only found one response and they were having the same problem you where. I am not sure what the missing call is looking for, but the other person with the problem had just updated to version 1.15, so it could possibly be something that was introduced by the patch.
I suggest you send a support ticket to GOG if you have not already and they will attempt to help. If you already have a report with them, then I am sorry you just have to wait or contact the developer themselves.
GOG normally end up bogged down after sales and whilst they might be a while your support ticket tells them when it was placed, and so long as you are within your 30 days then when they do get to you (even if it is then outside of that time), your problem is treated as being within the returns time frame.
Hopefully they will ask for your systems crash reports or something and if you can consistently reproduce the problem - something I could not - then at the very least they should pass the problem on to the developer directly.
You might also like to look at these two links from the developers support forums. Please note the lack of admins assistance or interaction. Why I think GOG will be your best bet on an answer.
http://positech.co.uk/forums/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10732 http://positech.co.uk/forums/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=11376