head to head

Europa Universalis III cover artvsSid Meier's Civilization cover art

Europa Universalis IIIvsSid Meier's Civilization

Europa Universalis III leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Sid Meier's Civilization leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION1 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION9 /10
Europa Universalis IIISid Meier's Civilization

Axis by axis

Execution1 vs 0

Europa Universalis III leans harder on execution: Pausable interface, no physical test

Reads1 vs 1

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance3 vs 4

Sid Meier's Civilization leans harder on variance: Map generation and combat rolls hide early information

Optimization9 vs 9

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

Europa Universalis III

full breakdown

Sid Meier's Civilization