head to head

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings cover artvsWarcraft III: Reign of Chaos cover art

Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsvsWarcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings leans Optimization (Grand Arena); Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos leans Optimization (Grand Arena).

EXECUTION6 /10READS7 /10VARIANCE4 /10OPTIMIZATION8 /10
Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsWarcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Axis by axis

Execution6 vs 7

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos leans harder on execution: Micro of heroes and units decides fights

Reads7 vs 7

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance4 vs 3

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings leans harder on variance: Fog, map gen, civ matchups

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.

full breakdown

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

full breakdown

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos