OK, an update:
I've now found a way to get beyond this by following a workaround found at http://gaming.stackexchange.com:
"The launcher is broken on laptops with graphics switching technologies, so until there's a patch or something, the launcher will crash every time you try to launch it with both gpu's enabled. A temporary workaround is to go to Device manager, disable your dedicated gpu (in your case - AMD), launch the game and while the launcher is showing "Loading" enable your gpu back again. This will prevent launcher from crashing, while still allowing you to run the game with your dedicated gpu. If you don't get it right on first try, try re-enabling the gpu slightly later, timing is the key here.
You have to do this every time you launch the game, except when restarting from within the game to apply graphics settings."
Still, although I do get past this screen now, the game itself won't load, but I guess this is another thread...
Thank you all!
RD