Imperialism 1 crashes, if I try to build my first railroad.
(Win 7, each compatibility mode, also tried to run as admin)

I have the same problem but with Win 8 64bit

no problems at all for me on W8.1 and NOT using any compatibility modes at all.

Suggestions from my side for W8 onward: (some of it might still be true for W7 ;) )

Directx9.0c installed?
Do NOT install in this stupid program-whatever-(86) folder!!!!!
My path is D:\GOGGames\Imperialism
Do NOT use Non-latin/ASCII characters in the savepath (including for savegames) Windows still has Problems with non-Latin characters. (examples like è Å Ö and so on)
Avoid too lengthy paths, that can sometimes cause problems as well.

All what I can think of in the moment

Thanks for the answer.
I tried that. Now, the game stops upon the close of the newspaper article to the beginning of the game.

some more:

Directx9.0c is installed?
is directplay installed? (under Windows feature)

And as your description is rather short ;)

Could you please elaborate a bit more?

EDIT: So what changed, improved or ???

my game crashes always when i attack or maybe take Paris in War... every single time