head to head
vs
Age of Empires: OnlinevsThe Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II
Age of Empires: Online leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Age of Empires: OnlineThe Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II
Axis by axis
Execution4 vs 5
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II leans harder on execution: Moderate APM demands, forgiving unit control
Reads4 vs 5
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II leans harder on reads: Human opponents in skirmish reward prediction
Variance2 vs 2
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization7 vs 7
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.