Building comparison
head to head
Age of Empires II: HD EditionvsWarcraft: Orcs & Humans
Age of Empires II: HD Edition asks more than Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and the gap is optimization.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A real-time strategy game where mastering build orders and economy management decides most matches.
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
Optimization · Practiced Mastery
The original 1994 RTS pitting orc and human bases against each other in Azeroth.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Warcraft: Orcs & Humans leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Age of Empires II: HD EditionWarcraft: Orcs & Humans
Axis by axis
Execution5 vs 5
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
click speed and micro help but secondary
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
Clunky unit micro and click speed still matter
Reads4 vs 4
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
predicting human opponent strategy and timing
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
Human multiplayer adds genuine build mind games
Variance2 vs 3
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
minor map and resource randomness
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
Fog of war hides enemy composition
Optimization9 vs 7
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans clearly harder on optimization.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
build orders and economy are near-solvable
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
Build orders and economy timing dominate
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.