My first game of single player civilization proper. Have been played over two evenings, I've managed to wipe out three empires and now the Germans are starting just as I'm dusting off the third empire.

I have advanced tanks on all the German cities, in the top right hand corner it tells me i have 8 turns left, I'm way in front, points-wise, on any other Empire and......

The games crashes! ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH! I go to the auto saves, phew! Load it up and it's a game I played weeks ago! I look for other auto saves but they've all vanished!


ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG GGGGGGGHHHHHH!

The autosaves should be the most recent game that you were playing. Very, very weird.

how does the game crash?

does the computer sound DRRRRRRRRRRRRRR and the computer stops,

or does it make a fatal error

I don't know how it crashed, but I also don't know what was wrong with your autosaves. :(