The way I look at it, Free Cities is like the Civilization series where this is like X-Com. Still strategy and some similarities, but that is more overview where this gets more detailed into the units.
Pretty good comparison! Personally I'd say it's more Mount & Blade vs Dragon Age: a ton of units distinguished only by type, with a handful you actually care (very much if you play FC like me) about - versus a small number of characters who all mean something to you
