head to head

Rome: Total War cover artvsThe Settlers II: 10th Anniversary cover art

Rome: Total WarvsThe Settlers II: 10th Anniversary

Rome: Total War leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION3 /10READS2 /10VARIANCE2 /10OPTIMIZATION8 /10
Rome: Total WarThe Settlers II: 10th Anniversary

Axis by axis

Execution3 vs 2

Rome: Total War leans harder on execution: Real-time battle micro rewards quick unit handling

Reads2 vs 2

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance2 vs 2

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization8 vs 8

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

Rome: Total War

full breakdown

The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary