head to head

Hearts of Iron IV cover artvsHeroes of Might & Magic III: HD Edition cover art

Hearts of Iron IVvsHeroes of Might & Magic III: HD Edition

Hearts of Iron IV leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Heroes of Might & Magic III: HD Edition leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION2 /10READS4 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION9 /10
Hearts of Iron IVHeroes of Might & Magic III: HD Edition

Axis by axis

Execution2 vs 1

Hearts of Iron IV leans harder on execution: pausable, micromanagement-heavy

Reads4 vs 4

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance3 vs 3

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

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

Hearts of Iron IV

full breakdown

Heroes of Might & Magic III: HD Edition