I thought the first battle in the story was that the Alliance was stuck in port in Fezzan and they wanted them to gtfo before the Empire arrived and started a battle there. Might have been backwards with the characters (as in Reinhard was stuck). Which slowly added on to the point that maybe Fezzan was slowly siding with the Empire that went on throughout the first and second season. But yeah I was just writing in the middle of the ep and was surprised as I thought the battle of Astarte was that prequel battle. But yeah I guess I just don't remember all the names of the battles because I haven't watched this series since like 10 years ago.
And I agree they are more faithful, its just I always really liked Obersteins design in that he actually does look like a guy everyone would be super suspicous of and everyone hates.
I do have to say that Reunthal looks more like a guy who would get drunk and pick fights now though lol and doesn't look completely out of place doing so like in the older version. But I felt his older design was more... charismatic?