AI defender party to the left of my Sov attacks the rockSpiderDrones (on the Humble Inn location) and the game CTDs.
save immediately before this (just hit next turn, choose research breakthru, watch combat animation and CTDs)
memory dump
dxdiag 32 bit
dxdiag 64 bit
The game makes an autosave 'after' this CTD (ie -- the autosave is there after I restart Elemental) and I can reload that autosave and play from then on, the save from that is Autosave after CTD