head to head
vs
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at WarvsWarcraft II: Tides of Darkness
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery); Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at WarWarcraft II: Tides of Darkness
Axis by axis
Execution5 vs 6
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness leans harder on execution: Faster micro across land, sea and air units
Reads5 vs 5
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance2 vs 3
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness leans harder on variance: Fog of war conceals enemy tech and armies
Optimization7 vs 7
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.