Building comparison
head to head
Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsvsStarCraft
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings asks more than StarCraft, and the gap is variance.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Optimization · Grand Arena
The definitive medieval RTS where castle drops and farm economies decide empires.
StarCraft
Optimization · Grand Arena
A real-time strategy classic where perfected build orders and mechanical speed decide most matches.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings leans Optimization (Grand Arena); StarCraft leans Optimization (Grand Arena).
Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsStarCraft
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 7
StarCraft leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Micro, villager management, hotkey speed
StarCraft
APM and micro control ceiling is huge
Reads7 vs 6
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
High-level play is predicting human openings
StarCraft
scouting and predicting human opponent builds
Variance4 vs 1
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings leans clearly harder on variance.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Fog, map gen, civ matchups
StarCraft
minimal hidden info beyond fog of war
Optimization8 vs 9
StarCraft leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Build orders refined over two decades
StarCraft
build orders and economy are near-solvable
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.