Game keeps crashing when I try to start a new game. Strangely, if I hit "continue" on the launcher it successfully loads the last game I played- but I want to start a new game. Tried repairing install- no luck. Submitted a bug report every time the game crashed on me. Any ideas? Don't really want to delete and reinstall, as I would lose all my custom empires I've created.

well if it loads your old games then clearly the issue is at your end and not the game files

did you install mods, play multiplayer, forget to load as admin?