head to head
vs
Hostile Waters: Antaeus RisingvsStronghold
Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Stronghold leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Hostile Waters: Antaeus RisingStronghold
Axis by axis
Execution3 vs 2
Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising leans harder on execution: Direct unit piloting matters but never twitch-defines battles
Reads2 vs 2
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance2 vs 2
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization8 vs 9
Stronghold leans harder on optimization: economy and castle-building near-solvable
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.