Summary: Create folder C:\cc2 and copy content of gogs installation to it so that C:\cc2\cc2.exe can be clicked and run.

I had the same problems. It appears to be actually either special characters in the path / directory names or the length of the actual thing. It is interesting that the crash on next only happens some times but not all the time so it might actually be a buffer overflow since the windows event log shows access violation so it might mess up memory or jump offsets.

Anyway here is the solution to this mess. Find the directory gog galaxy installs close combat to (cc2.exe) is in there.
Copy the whole directory content to C:\cc2 so that your cc2.exe is located at C:\cc2\cc2.exe.

When I now run this cc2.exe by double click I do not have any problems with cc2 crahsing anymore and I already played through half the grand campaign on the german side.

PS: I aso made all files and directories writeable and fiddled with the reg ex by switching the 'save' key value from 0 to 1 (dont ask why, I just played with it and it didnt helped but maybe its something worth mentioning). Also I have compatibility set to XP for cc2.exe.

PSS: I run it on Windows 10.