I confirm this issue.
If you take command on the battle an error is thrown and game crashes.
On my computer, 2 pop-up with the same issue erroring The pixel format was invalid as specified. with an Ok button.
After I clicked to the button, battle starts to take place for 3 seconds, then game crashes, with no other output.
Also, another issue is that I can't run higher screen resolution, even by providing options (-w, -fullscreen) to the command line.
FWIW, this also happens on the Steam Deck, with an AMD GPU.
As a workaround install dgvoodoo 2.79.3 and set launch options to
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8.dll,d3d9.dll,d3dimm.dll,ddraw.dll=n,b" %command%
To run at higher resolutions start winecfg via protontricks and increase the DPI. 160 was a good value on the Steam Deck in desktop mode with borders hidden by kwin.
d3d8.dllx1 2025-10d3d9.dllx1 2025-10d3dimm.dllx1 2025-10ddraw.dllx1 2025-10
Compatibility Report
System Information
I confirm:
Symptoms
The game appears to work normally, except that tactical space battles instantly crash the game.
Two untitled pop-up windows appear, stating respectively :
And then :
The program then exits (see crash report below).
steam-441550.log
Reproduction
Simply run the game and provoke a fleet battle (playing as the rebels, moving any of your fleet to Coruscant and fast-forwarding the game until it arrives should trigger one) ; then use the rightmost button at the bottom of the popup window to go to the tactical 3D view. The game then instantly crashes 100% of the time on my machine.
There is a very longstanding similar issue on the Wine bugtracker (though the original reporter seems to imply that they do get the battle interface, which I don't see here).
Workaround
The game can technically be played to completion by saving often (just in case) and auto-resolving all fleet battles, which avoids the crash. However, this significantly alters the player options and badly affects game balance (not to mention that this lack low-poly 3D space battles disturbs me ; no pew-pew, no joy :( ).