OK don't panic, it *will* work. There should be no need to delete all saves if your most current one was made (as you wrote) from within the main city map. But if you just start new, then there is no need to create that special save -- just start new with the mod enabled.
What is the exact error you get? Does the modded game start and crash, or just not start at all? Do you get an error message? Is there a traceback.txt file been generated?
If you can start the game and get into the main menu, do you see the Naughty Tribute Mod Version information on the lower right screen corner? If so, click on it to go into the mod menu, click on "create_diagnosis_file", then ZIP the created file "Naughty Tribute Mod Diagnosis.txt" and attach the archive here.
If you cannot start the game at all even after a second try, there should be an error message displayed at least. Or you installed it wrong in a way that the mod is not even found and not loaded at all. In that case, you will need to check the installation path again, and carefully follow the instructions to the letter.