As per the previous troubleshooting (
http://forums.codeblocks.org/index.php/topic,23158.msg157800.html#msg157800), it was determined wx3.1 was what introduced the failed assertions in my scenario.  I tried connecting with the RDP client set to 32 bit color mode and this C::B nightly launched without error.  I connected with 24 bit and 15 bit color modes and launching the nightly resulted in the failed assertion messages for each.  So that does seem to be a trigger for this problem, although unless I'm misremembering, 16 bit color is the default setting for Windows' RDP for quite a while (probably at least Windows XP).
I can try to build the source code, but I don't want to install an SVN client (since I was mostly coerced to switching to Git after Google Code shut down and I transferred over to Github).  Getting the source code snapshot is taking ages though.  Are there any other unlisted build requirements other than what's listed on the Wiki article (wiki.codeblocks.org/index.php/Installing_Code::Blocks_from_source_on_Windows)?
Edit:  The source downloaded.  Do I just continue from here by opening the C::B project and trying to build it from within the IDE?
Edit 2:  I set it up as per the article as far as I can tell, but the build failed at:
#error "You need to have Direct2D capable wxWidget build to build Code::Blocks. We want to support fonts with ligatures!!!"
This compiler directive is in src\sdk\wxscintilla\src\PlatWX.cpp
Edit 3:  Trying the steps listed here (taking sodev's correction into account that include\wx\msw\setup.h is the correct file to edit):
http://forums.codeblocks.org/index.php/topic,23291.msg158631.html#msg158631Edit 4:  Even after all that and rebuilding both wxWidgets and C::B, it failed on the same line.   I don't want to just hackishly bypass this check just to get it to compile if that will break something.  I'll wait for further guidance.