It's a recent, quick and dirt problem-and-solution, a forum search haven't popped any thread about them but I still think this one deserves being made public, so other users may either contribute or have their problems solved, at least with this temporary one:

1. THE PROBLEM:
NecroVision Lost Company/English version (maybe others; maybe the original game in languages other than english, too) crashes to desktop when loading the first mission.

2. THE (dumb, temporary) SOLUTION:
a. Install the czech version (have not tested other versions; will not do) in a separate folder;

b. Back up the following files (you can even move them to another folder) from ...\NecroVision Lost Company\Data\ folder:

fonts.pak
items.pak
levels.pak
lscripts.pak
maps.pak
materials.pak
models.pak
scripts.pak

c. Go to your czech installation (for instance) ...\NecroVision Lost Company CZECH\Data\ and copy the same set of files back to ...\NecroVision Lost Company\Data\;

d. Launch the game.

I made no further tests so a single one, perhaps more and even an unknown combination of such files may solve the problem. Please note that this is not thoroughly tested and may or may not impact on game performance, progression and/or result in saved games corruption over time. My experience is: I was able to get past the crashing point as well as playing the first chapter with no noticeable problems at all.


Also, despite sounding obvious, I'd urge new users to check the default Video configuration for NecroVisioN (the first game; Lost Company comes with a soft video config) as it runs very, very slowly on some machines, which after tweaks lowering down visual effects is made corrected, raising the FPS to a reasonable amount.