It's very loyal to the book lore in the way fights go. UNSC strategy is meant to fight as if they were a firing colonial force, to fight in an unison with both MAC guns and missiles, to both outnumber the enemy and avoid him.

Covenant, on the other hand, can't do combined attacks as easily, but have "energy" shielding in the form of defensive dice that gets calculated with each damage track, while the UNSC only has titanium shielding for the first hit.

People say it's like FireStorm Armada with the exploding dice mechanic, but while I haven't got to play other war games aside from D&D editions, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, and a form of basic GURPS, it does feel like its own product, with its own strategies meant to lead massive fleets.

Ships can only move forward at either half speed or full speed, with turns depending on how big the ship is (with the exception of covvies, who can glide sideways at a heavy movement cost), never staying still. System actually flows really well.

Basically, it's not just skin, but loyal to the lore in more ways than any Halo universe resident would like. However, for the dice, you can actually use normal dice and accomodate (1 is epic fail, 2-3 miss, 4-5 hit, 6 crit for white dice -- 1-2 for helmet/swords, 3-4 for shields, 5-6 for thunders), but visually, it might be good to have the real ones.

As for commanders, I hope they release more soon, since UNSC right now depends a lot on boarding action as a form of force, due to Standforth's commander card action combinations.