Building comparison
head to head
Heroes of Might and Magic IIvsPortal
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Heroes of Might and Magic II demands more variance; Portal demands more execution.
Heroes of Might and Magic II
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Beloved fantasy turn-based strategy of heroes, castles, and stacked creature armies racing for map control.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Heroes of Might and Magic II leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Heroes of Might and Magic IIPortal
Axis by axis
Execution0 vs 4
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Heroes of Might and Magic II
Turn-based clicking only
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads2 vs 0
Heroes of Might and Magic II leans clearly harder on reads.
Heroes of Might and Magic II
Hotseat duels reward mind games; AI is mappable
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance4 vs 0
Heroes of Might and Magic II leans clearly harder on variance.
Heroes of Might and Magic II
Map exploration, morale, luck, and combat rolls
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
Optimization9 vs 8
Heroes of Might and Magic II leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Heroes of Might and Magic II
Build orders, hero chaining, and creature math are deeply solvable
Portal
Pure puzzle-solving optimization.
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.