H1 Completly borked but theoretically it can be fixed.

• Installed protontricks from Discover
• Open konsole and paste:

echo "alias protontricks='flatpak run com.github.Matoking.protontricks'" >> ~/.bashrc

• This allows protontricks to be run via the terminal.

protontricks 8170 winxp dotnet45 gfw

• Protontricks terminal doesn't work for old versions of proton on the steam deck but the gui version does work.
• Dotnet 40 can't be installed on the new versions of proton otherwise the installation will fail.
• Use proton 5.0. Use protontricks gui, battlestations pacific, default wineprefix, install Windows DLL, Dotnet 40 or Dotnet 45. Be patient.
• Switch to a new version of proton and run:

protontricks 8170 winxp dotnet45 gfw

• This makes sure everything is installed.
• Get Xliveless from the person below me and extract to game directory.
• Run winecfg instead of install Windows DLL and add, apply xlive in libraries. ( Not sure if this needed ).

• Once dotnet 40 is installed, the game can be get past the black screen but will always crash within 3 - 5 seconds of reaching the main menu. This happens without the gfw and xlivess patches. Even when installing the patches, the game still crashes in 3 - 5 seconds.
• No errors in the proton logs. I think its an issue with the gfw patch not working.
• The game always crashes on the steam deck in dekstop mode without an external monitor.
• The Kantai Kassen mod allows the game to played without any issue ( I didn't test Gaming Mode ). For the login after launching the game, you can choose any name.
• To disable steam deck controls and use M & K, go to controls, general then diable xbox 360 combability mode. Click accept in the bottom left.