I'm a Fire Emblem Veteran who finally got Three Houses on sale, and have been hearing a bit about the generally low challenge on this game at all difficulty levels, despite the rest of the game being otherwise pretty great. I've heard a few examples of different "challenge runs" people have done in Three Houses, but I'm not really looking for a white-knuckled reload-fest where there only a select few choices / strategies are viable.
I guess I'm looking for something in the ballpark of Fates: Conquest (Hard) or Blazing Blade: Hector's tale (Normal)? Ideally I would play Three Houses on Hard with some self-imposed challenges to make it feel "Hard," then afterwards could do the same with Maddening for a second playthrough.
For context, when a game like this is too easy I try to find a way to bump up the general difficulty, without making it feel too restrictive where I can't make use of half the game features, etc. For example, in XCOM 2: WOTC getting mods to make the aliens increasingly more powerful as the game goes on to try to prevent the lack of challenge in the end-game, or in Breath of the Wild having self-imposed rules of only eating a single meal/elixir per combat, only upgrading armor to rank 2, only teleporting between settlements, etc. That way I can still experiment and take advantage of all of the game's features, without feeling too overpowered too quickly.
Here are some ideas I've come across, but haven't played the game yet so I don't have a great grasp on what things would work well together:
Don't do auxiliary battles, since they give too much XP
Don't equip Prowess skills or Battalions (I would prefer not to cut out entire game mechanics if I can find another way to increase challenge)
Does anybody have an idea of a self-imposed rule or several rules used together that might give something close to this kind of "true Hard mode" experience I'm looking for in Three Houses?
