I had the same problem, and scoured the boards for fixes. Turns out there are a lot of threads about this problem. I found this thread the most helpful:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4988.0One important thing is to
restart the game after any graphics change. I started to panic when the fixes didnt work, and gave up. Later I fired up the game again to see if I'd get lucky, and sure enough I havent had the problem since.
Another note, the Ufoconsole.log is a pain to find (at least with Vista). The AppData folder is hidden by default, I had to log in Administrator mode, change Folders to view all. Also strangely, the Ufoconsole.log did not show the crash, only a switch to Team (1), then nothing. It may be that it doesnt catch all the crashes.
Anyways I hope this helps, I think there should be a consolidated thread for this problem as it seems to be a common bug.