So I started a new game today. I've only played the game for a little bit, on the second difficulty setting and got my @$$ kicked, so I started over at an easier difficulty...

I finish clearing out Drassen and talked to the Mine Captain. After that's done, I leave from the southern portion of the screen. I didn't feel like playing anymore, so I saved and quit out. It's a few hours later and i've decided to play some more of my game...

I load up my game and try to resume playing. My 5 mercs are on the block underneith the Drassen Mine block and I had them heal up and rest before I previously stopped playing...

Here's where the problem starts...

The time is currently at PAUSED and I select my group to move to a different square. Someone says "OK", like they are going to move. So I UNPAUSE the time and expect them to get moving...

Then the game CRASHES

I've tried multiple times, reloading the game after it crashes, just to make sure it wasn't a one time thing. Whenever I unpause the time, the game crashes...

I'm only at Day 4 around 20:00...

My game version is the GOG standard version 1.12 and i'm running it on Windows 7 as Administrator, to fix the saves not loading...

How do I fix this problem?

Thank you very much...that fixed it... :D

Glad it worked out.
Once you've finished JA2, install the 1.13 mod. It adds stability and is highly customizable.
It also adds a lot of content like new weapons and ammo and a new (optional) inventory system.

This type of crashing also happens in Wildfire, and the fix is the same.

Unfortunately none of the fixes seem to work for me. Regular crashes/freezes at specific times even trying the workarounds. If I go tactical, then after I'm done it crashes later.

JA2 either vanilla or with the 1.13 mod
Win7 64 bit

This is the one GOG game that's unplayable due to bugs. Too bad.

If you have JA2 installed in the program files directory on your c-drive, install it elsewhere. That is causing additional issues on W7.
The workaround "works" in the sense it won't crash at that specific game time. It will crash again on a later in-game time. It's unfortunately 1 of the more annoying bugs in JA2.
Still the game should be playable.