There are a few manipulations to make it work perfectly.
I'll address the CD version, as the DVD one is nigh-impossible to find anyway.
-Create a Win98 bottle, then launch the install from CD 1, or its ISO.
-Choose maximum installation, leave everything else as default.
-Applies to CD 1 only: when it asks for CD 2, do force the CD 1 eject. It's safe, and you'll be able to continue the installation with the remaining 3 CDs.
-Now, even with the full install, the game will require CD 1 to be present to launch, otherwise it will crash at startup. Pretty annoying. This is NOT copy protection, the game didn't have any at the time. It's just a quirk (I own the original 4 CD package).
-To avoid that: first, download the one and only (I believe) patch released for the game, either at Westwood's website, or any other. It's easy to find. Make sure you download the patch for the CD version, though.
And now the tricky part:
-Procure a hex editor. Any will do the trick, but I used HexEditor. It's free.
-Launch it, and open "BLADE.EXE" (which came from the patch you downloaded) into HexEditor. Be careful what you're doing next.
-At 0xFFF1, replace the next two values by "90".
-Do the same from 0x10028.
-Launch the game without any mounted image anymore.
-Enjoy.
;)