Chances are uh, is this a map compiling problem?
I'd suspect the maps aren't compiled, but since I don't know how it works, I can't be sure of this.
Does the game crash the first time you try to enter a combat zone?
Anyways, the developers seem to like getting crash reports to tinker with.. It's their hobby I think. While the latest development version isn't stable, and does crash, it shouldn't crash a lot... I think... While I myself get crashes on almost every run, It's usually something I myself didn't do as required by the current development version... Like recompile all the maps, again, which seems to need to be done a lot for some reason. But once that's done, it doesn't usually crash...
But yes, I try to avoid the development version as much as I can in games too since it's not stable, or balanced, or (insert problem here). This development community however really tries to push everyone to only play the development version, and judging from the many posts I've read, playing the stable version is frowned upon.
Basically, it's development version and, not much other choice here... You seem like a stable version player though, like me.. My personal suggestion (which doesn't represent anyone else's) is to try a different game for now, like X-Force, or Battle for Wesnoth.
If I'm wrong, and you have no problem working through all the bugs of the development version, I recommend you post the crash logs and other important information in the development bugs section, or possibly here, and let the developers fix it, so you can continue trying to play this game.
(Edited to be less certain sounding since I'm really kinda clueless)