How much memory do you have?  The longer the game runs the more memory it needs (generally speaking).  I had the problem you describe on my 8G machine, movint the save file to a 16G computer solved the issue.

Ok not raw mem, Swap file size? Video drivers?  Does it seam to crash when zoomed in on the map

Setting the swap manually to 5622 MB and updating the video driver had no effect.

So the issue is with my computer then.

I set to 24000, now I got stuck in diplomacy after clicking on (to get) declare war on http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198031670267/screenshots/

Well, apart from the diplomacy screen not really working, there has been no crash to desktop. Strange, I cannot recall since the dos config.sys the need to manually set memory.

I opened ticket #RFU-594-40276 on the 2nd of December, no feedback yet.

Edit: One of the points on that page is not to set the memory manually.

no worries mate .  Don't feel i did that much and plenty of folks have helped me so i always try to pass it along

So you finished it? It did look like you were getting close