Game crashes and how to workaround them /theorycrafting/

Apparently, the problem lies in the map generation engine. If a map is corrupted, the game crashes (usually when the mercenary icon appears, for some reason).
You can workaround this by restarting the game and launching the map while holding down CTRL (which generates a new map). That’s how I’m currently progressing through the campaign.
Looks like a town is essentially a kind of map, so if it’s bugged and you get kicked out, you won’t be able to enter again for 10–15 minutes, until the map is regenerated.