Like Douglas mentioned, there is a stepped-pause feature. This means you can halt the combat every X seconds (i.e. 1, 2, 4, 5 etc) automatically. This can be used to create essentially the same situation as traditional SE:IV tactical combat with the exception (and improvement to fairness IMO) that the ships will execute their orders and movement at the same time.
Alternatively, you may even choose to control a single ship in the combat (pretending you're its captain) while the combat runs.
