head to head
vs
Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsvsStronghold: Crusader
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings leans Optimization (Grand Arena); Stronghold: Crusader leans Optimization (Mind & Math).
Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsStronghold: Crusader
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 5
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings leans harder on execution: Micro, villager management, hotkey speed
Reads7 vs 6
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings leans harder on reads: High-level play is predicting human openings
Variance4 vs 4
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization8 vs 8
Even - both lean on optimization about the same.
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.