Crash on Start - Solved

[Dakirin]

It seems that the shortcut that TROM installer makes on your desktop is no longer working and you keep getting CTD.

The solution (which was given to me by Gudea TW user on Youtube) is to use Lt Chambers ModManager. I would recommend a fresh install of the game to make sure that you don't have some old mod files that could mess things up.

1. Download the ModManager link: https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...download-link)
2. Extract the zip file into a folder (could be the same folder were the zip file is)
3. Start the ModManager.exe file

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

4. Uncheck "Show all pack types" on the right corner
5. Check the trom packs on the left - check only ONE smoke pack
Ignore the conflicts, they are important only if you have multiple mods installed.
6. Start the game with the "Launch" option on the right upper side.

Some extra steps if you want to start the game from a shortcut:
7. Delete the Rights of Men shortcut from desktop (the one that the installer makes)
8. Make a shortcut for the ModManager - right click ModManager.exe and choose "send to desktop (create shortcut)"
9. Right click the new shortcut (ModManager) and choose "Properties">in Shortcut tab choose "Change Icon">go to Empire folder (steamapps\common\Empire Total War) and choose the nice looking TROM icon that you had previously.

If you are still having trouble make sure that:
1. ModManager is not on some external hard drive.
2. You have a fresh installation or you have verified the game files and the vanilla Empire TW works - start a campaign/a custom battle to make sure that it works.
3. You start the game from the "Launch" option in the ModManager not the desktop Empire shortcut.

[16kadams]

I still get application load error 5:000065434

[night-crawler]

I still get application load error 5:000065434

It works for me. If you are having problems with Mod Manager App.

You can manually edit "the user.empire_script.txt" file in found in "%appdata%\The Creative Assembly\Empire\scripts" folder
Add the following mods as follows.

mod "trom_battlesounds.pack";
mod "trom_blood_smoke_full.pack";
mod "trom_core_part_1.pack";
mod "trom_core_part_2.pack";
mod "trom_flags.pack";
mod "trom_loadingscreens.pack";

This will load the required TROM mods from the vanilla launcher directly without needing Mod manager
The TROM install works , the problem is with the shortcut it creates doesn't load the mods properly.

To uninstall is exactly the same as described in TROM install doc, with the extra step of deleting the above modifications to "the user.empire_script.txt" above. That will take you back to vanilla.