If it's crashing right at startup, I had the same problem. Did you choose one of the colours not already in use (18-32 as you scroll down on the colour palette)? If so, this is the problem. It seems they're broken. Dan Megaha of Firaxis has confirmed this, and that a fix is being worked on. In the meantime, it should be o.k. if you switch to one of the colours already in use. Don't worry about conflicts with other civ colours, the game will reassign a coulour other than the default or unique colour in the case of duplication. I tried it & it works. Hope this helps.