The Revised Edition from Holistic (cannot say anything about the first) had a lot of background material and cost tables, most of which found their way into the 2nd edition rulebook (as did a lot of stuff from the player's companion). That being said: The game was a space wargame, but had a lot of background and tie ins with the rpg (using PCs as Pilots, Marines, new Skills, new Psychic Powers, etc.). It also did say quite a bit about ships in FS in general and the odd bit of specific information (such as The hazat having all their Dreadnaughts fully operational all the time while the other houses mothballed al but one or two unless needed). Nothing too specific to restrict player creativity, but solid guidelines.
(Very) Roughly half of the background Fluff was copied into the ACTA:NA. you can notice that, as some rules there don't mix well with the background given. Most notably the amount of fighters. the Holistic NA actually stated that the Houses refrained from fighter use as it is hard to come by trained pilots. So: If you want background information I would recommend to get the 2nd edition NA-Rules
And just to wrap antoher question from the threat up: I get the impression that armament, troops and Hit-Points from ACTA:NA is strongly based upon Holistic NA in general then adding the pecularities of the ACTA-engine. (Sounds way better then ACTA-System don't you think
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