The base overlays also change up things, especially with the specialist formations, and I hope that Spartan will introduce new overlay formations for older ships to keep the variety going. I hope that Spartan introduces more of those. I particularly like the area of effect, um, effects in the game, such as the Punic supercarrier being able to repair nearby frigates. I'm probably making it sound more complicated than it actually is, but there are lots of little things that affect play that aren't apparent until you actually play. Sometimes you can't take a shot at all because there are too many things pushing down the FP rating of the shot, so you have to get into the best position to take a shot while trying to mitigate your opponent's shots, and factors like weapons and distance play a part in that. Ships blow up quicker than in Firestorm Armada (which is mostly an attrition-based game) and the firepower rating table adds extra nuance. Also, in those games you subtract dice for damage after the attack roll, not before it (a subtle point but one that makes a difference if you've played Firestorm Armada). In my experience, Halo Fleet Battles plays a bit like Planetfall in space, mainly because the two games share the damage track mechanism.

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