head to head
vs
Empire Earth IIIvsStar Wars: Empire at War
Empire Earth III leans Optimization (Mind & Math); Star Wars: Empire at War leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Empire Earth IIIStar Wars: Empire at War
Axis by axis
Execution4 vs 3
Empire Earth III leans harder on execution: Macro speed matters though far less than in tighter RTS peers
Reads5 vs 5
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance2 vs 2
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization7 vs 8
Star Wars: Empire at War leans harder on optimization: Economy, tech order and counter-unit composition decide campaigns
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.