First, the difficulty settings are very different between the two...hard and moderate are far easier in the real game
Second, You hear people state that all the civs (or whatever they are called in AOM) are basically the same and not the diversity as AOK (which i did play alot)...well AOK did have more civs...but, i played the Norse for the first time, playing greek in the demo, and i went from hitting the first age in 5 minutes to 6:34...but truly like the Norse...dwarf miner thing threw me...i believe their is alot of diversity but havent really played throughly to test...but i thing each is unique and you can definitely tailor them the WAY YOU WANT rather then having it pre-determined.
AOM is not AOEIII...to this i say no, but i dont believe they are two totally different genres, games, or strategic war games (whatever you are calling it)...i think AOM is an improved, further devoped AOK with a twist of fantasy units to add flare...but it is definitely the AO series underneath
Anyway, love the game, love the norse...have already grabbed a dislike for the egyptian civs and I love that historical period...dont have a clue why...i think i just need to play the pharoah lovers...is the campaigns any good as far as familiarizing you with the civs??? Going to get strats down with the comp and then will be online to have some fun competitive gaming...looking forward to seeing you all there