PhilBowles
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2011
- Messages
- 5,333
There's nothing stopping you from playing without reloading without Ironman. I play with a rule that I'll never reload if I win a mission unless there's a bug (and often I'll let soldiers die to bugs), but I can and do reload if I suffer a squad wipe, for instance (though there's fun to be had with retreating against the odds, as I once did in an EU game to save my favourite soldier when the rest of the squad had gone down, with Chryssalids in hot pursuit).
On the other hand, psychologically you may have a point - just started an Ironman Classic campaign, and I was very careful to play tactically, making sure to stay out of sight and to come at aliens from unexpected directions, always covering my scout in case any aliens were activated, anything to avoid casualties (and when in doubt, use grenades) - the way I play on Impossible, but I've tended to neglect on Classic normally. It helped that the first mission was a new map I hadn't seen before, but even on the second mission - on a good but quite familiar store map - it made for a different experience.