head to head
vs
Age of Empires II: HD EditionvsMount & Blade: Warband
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Mount & Blade: Warband leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Age of Empires II: HD EditionMount & Blade: Warband
Axis by axis
Execution5 vs 5
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads4 vs 2
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans harder on reads: predicting human opponent strategy and timing
Variance2 vs 3
Mount & Blade: Warband leans harder on variance: Emergent campaign events and lord politics
Optimization9 vs 8
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans harder on optimization: build orders and economy are near-solvable
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.