Just finished Conquest Hard iron man, and had to gush/vent!

[Lore]

This was my second playthrough of Fates, after Birthright. Both were on Hard Classic, iron man (no resets), and without any grinding allowed.

I lost 10 units over all (1 capturable boss and 9 "real" characters):

• Chapter 9: Silas. And I'd wanted to marry Sophie so bad, nooooooo...

• Chapter 11: Felicia. This was all my fault because I was trying to grind the boss for EXP/support points but messed up.

• Chapter 14: Benny. I thought Pike-Ruin Clubs, etc, were just like the Dual weapons, and only messed with the hit percentages. I didn't realize they actually tripled might like Beastkillers/Armorslayers. It was a fatal but valuable lesson. A shame though, since I was really liking his character.

• Paralogue 19: Leo, Camilla, Kaze. Yeah, this chapter was a bloodbath. I probably should have used the dragon veins more effectively. Conquest's level design is pretty brilliant/evil for how often it makes crowds of enemies with both Wyrmslayers, Beastkillers, Armorslayers, and magic attacks...no tank is safe.

• Chapter 19: Kumagera: Bless him for his sacrifice. He died to the Kitsune so that others could live.

• Paralogue 15: Shigure. Really good character...he was my #2 in Birthright.

• Chapter 22: Velouria, Beruka. This was an especially big loss because Velouria was my wife, and Beruka was her mom. Velouria died because of Hana procing Rend Heaven twice in a row. Beruka died because of my being flanked on two sides at the end, and a Pegasus Knight with a Bolt Naginata getting through.

Despite the tough losses, this playthrough further solidified my love of iron man. It enriches the experience so much. I like to think that "death shouldn't be an inconvenience, it should be a tragedy." Permadeath isn't for all games, because sometimes you just want to play and chill. But for a story-based game, which is supposed to make you feel emotions and relate to the characters, permadeath makes everything much more real.

I did hate how the cutscenes still have dialogue from "dead" characters (retreating is BS), but I imagine it in my mind as the MU being unable to deal with the loss and just imagining them. And everyone else just awkwardly deals with the MU's eccentric behavior.

I was lucky to not lose anyone past chapter 22, even though there were some perilously close calls (like Shura going down to 1 HP during enemy phase, and Odin dodging a lethal attack at 85% hit chance!). My team was pretty solid by Chapter 23, too. That's also the point where I finally reached Galeforce with my two Dark Falcons. Galeforce is nerfed here, but I still absolutely love this ability. Like in my Birthright playthrough, I gave both my Ebon Wings to related units (Odin and Ophelia here). My "Dark Falcon reclassed to Malig Knight via Partner Seal" Ophelia was an insanely powerful glass cannon. Gale Force, Lightning tome, Trample, Savage Blow...oh boy. I also found it interesting how I had way more units at max level than in Birthright. I didn't get any units to Promoted 20 in Birthright, but had about 5-6 here. I guess I had to focus my EXP gains much more tightly.

Endgame was absolutely insane. I managed to make it on my second try. Now, my usual rule is that if I get a game over through Lord death, on my 2nd play of that chapter, I have to suicide-sacrifice any other characters that had died before my lord, plus one extra, who "took the hit" for the lord. But on my first play of Endgame, by the time MU got killed, so many other units had died I couldn't even remember which of them had. So, I let myself cheat a little here.

With more informed preparation, I was able to make it on my 2nd attempt without a single death. Ophelia did get killed, purely because of the stupid mistake of me forgetting to move her after Galeforce activation. But I had that one charge of the Bifrost staff, which I'd specifically gotten Dwyer to A-Rank with Staves to use on this chapter! Bifrost was a life saver...literally.

It looks like it's an unpopular opinion, but I liked Conquest's story a lot more than Birthright's. Admittedly, it had some cheesy parts, but it was less generic than Birthright's "Hey, let's fight the evil empire!" plot, where there's not much plot besides the MU's merry band wandering from battle to battle. I'd rather the story try to do something different and fail, than not do anything at all. The one thing I really dislike is how Azura's disappearance was such a loose end.

Pairings, in the order that I reached them: Arthur/Effie, Odin/Nyx, Keaton/Beruka, Niles/Azura, Xander/Charlotte, Jakob/Selena (I was actually loving Leo/Selena, until he died...Selena had some real bad luck with her loved ones constantly dying in this playthrough), MU/Velouria, Percy/Ophelia. I was trying to get to Laslow/Elise, but Laslow was one of those useless benched units, and I just didn't have the space for him in the final chapters. Using a useless unit would've been too much of a liability, and could've led to more deaths.

Now, I'm on to Revelation. The biggest planned difference in my approach: getting the kids earlier, even before they come with Offspring Seals. They should still come in with appropriate levels that way, and the only thing I'll be missing out on is the 20k I'd save from a basically free Master Seal. On a no-grinding run, if you wait till Chapter 19 to get the kids, it's nearly impossible to get them to S-Rank. I don't feel like 20K is worth missing out on pairings.

I still want to marry Sophie, but Silas is recruited awfully late in Rev, so I don't think that'll work out. I might hold off marrying Sophie until a future Lunatic Conquest iron man playthrough...we'll see if that's actually possible!