I read the previous post about this and tried to run the game and the trainer in a variety of different sequences.. the end result is always the same:

The game goes to the splash screen as normal, the boot up when loading the game seems to be normal.. the empire total war mouse cursor replaces my windows cursor - then white screen crash..!

the initial error message that appears on the white screen is:
Error signature
AppName: empire.exe AppVer: 1.3.1.0 ModName: ch.dll
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 000010f5

if I cntl + alt + delete and try to close empire total war by clicking on 'end now' the error message becomes:
Error signature
szAppName: Empire.exe szAppVer: 1.3.1.0 szModName: hungapp
szModVer: 0.0.0.0 offset: 00000000

the 2 files it wants to report contents of are:
Empire.exe.mdmp and appcompat.txt

(i copied and pasted the screen as a jpeg if needed)

I am using game Version 1.3.1
Build 1139.2308
Trainer patch 8

and suggestions or even better solutions would be much apreciated

thanks

but the reference is:

Offset: 006ab50b

seems to work perfectly now

thanks for all the help