(While doing another playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening. I decided to try a "classic iron man" run. Basically it's a challenge based off the mode in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, where I accept all character deaths, and keep trying to push forward with the game with the units I have left. I'm doing this playthrough on Hard/Classic, without doing any tedious grinding to make things easier for myself. In short: it's a suicide run. So I thought I'd retell my failings in the form of a journal. Updated as I go)

Prologue: This was just a warm-up. I've played the first two chapters a number of times already, and even if this was Hard/Classic it wasn't going to pose much of a challenge. I made liberal use of Freddy as support for Chrom and my Avatar (Lilith), while keeping Lissa out of danger to do patch up. I traded Freddy around a bit to help Chrom and Lilith get killing blows, helping them get ahead on the leveling early on. No casualties!

Chapter One: Again, this was all pretty easy at this point. Did the strategy of pairing up Chrom and Freddy, and put them on the top-most fort. Let Lilith hang out near Chrom for/to build up support and took care of everything that came towards them pretty easily. When Sully and Virion came in, I paired them up and put them on the bottom fort. Haven't used Sully too much before, but she ended up cleaning up pretty well, while switching to Virion maybe once or twice to get some exp. No casualties!

Chapter Two: This was the first big hurdle. While Chrom and Lilith were more than capable at this point, everyone else was still fresh. I made use of Chrom and Lilith, by having them fight side by side in the thick of things, which put them further ahead of everyone else. Sully and Virion continued to work together to great effect here as well. I toyed around with Stahl and Vaike teaming up, but they got into some pretty hairy situations that Lissa and a stronger pair had to bail them out of. Still Vaike made some progress. I didn't touch Miriel because I thought that would just end in tragedy. No casualties!

Chapter Three: This one was also pretty tough, but I managed to make it through without anyone dying. I made use of Kellam as a tank unit, while my usual crew cleaned up. I was able to get Vaike and Stahl to do a little more in this map, but it was mostly Vaike who was making any progress. By this time Chrom and Lilith were woefully overpowered for the enemy forces, and I tried to hold back on using them as little as possible. At the very least, they were building up a strong relationship, as were Sully and Virion. No casualties!

Chapter Four: Finally a breather. This level was easy, even with limited units. I benched Stahl for this, and maybe left out Virion too? It was a pretty clean sweep, with priority towards getting Vaike and Kellam more experience on this easier map. No casualties!

Paralogue One, Xenologue One, and a couple Challenges: I side tracked a bit here to try and get some extra characters, and exp. All of this went by pretty smoothly, especially Xenologue One which was super easy. Once I got Pr. Marth I intergrated him into the army. Paralogue One was fairly unremarkable too, as it was even pretty easy to recruit Donnel. Following this I tried leveling Donnel in some skirmishes by pairing him up with Freddy. It didn't go too well, but no loses. Pr. Marth also wasn't fantastic yet, but hoping Aptitude will help. Aside from that, just got some exp for the usual crew. No casualties!

Chapter Five: Alright, this is when shit started to go south. I couldn't figure out how to get to Ricken in time to save him, so he ate it before I could even bench him. Maribelle also didn't make it out of the fight alive, but not for a lack of trying. She stuck around and healed some of the units I sent north to save her and Ricken in the first place, but eventually she got taken out by a wyvern rider. Things weren't pretty for the rest of my units either, with Marth getting fucked up pretty badly, and constantly having to be healed by Lissa. I paired him up with Lon'qu, but that didn't seem to help too much. Sully and Virion were able to cut across to the west and stop reinforcements from spawning on the left side of the map, while Chrom, Lilith, and Vaike cleaned up to the immediate north. Two casualties! (Ricken, Maribelle)

Chapter Six: Uhg, this was another brutal one, and ended up costing me greatly. I was able to recruit Gaius with Chrom, who held the left side with Kellam and Lilith. While Vaike and Panne tried to support "Marth" in the middle. Vaike ended up dying due to a stray wind attack I believe, so there went my investment in him, not to mention a great unit. Things went a lot smoother on the right-hand side where Sully/Virion and Frederick/Donnel were able to defend that breach effortlessly. At this point it's really the strong getting stronger, and the weak going no where. But I tried to incorporate Panne and Pr. Marth into the middle action as much as I could. One casualty! (Vaike)

Challenges Part Two: Well, this was really fucking stupid of me. I went and did a few challenges to try and get a small exp buffer, but ended up losing Kellam in the process! Yeah, not even an actual chapter, but just some random battle. What a waste! I hadn't put a ton of work into him, but he's a pretty useful unit, and I just lost him in an entirely stupid way. On the plus side, I managed to get Chrom, Lilith, Sully, Virion, Marth, and Lon'qu all within the same range. Chrom got married to Lilith, and Sully got married to Virion. One casualty! (Kellam)

Chapter Seven: This was also incredibly stupid, but I lost Cordelia as soon as I got her, which doesn't look good. If I can't introduce new characters into the army, then I'm already dead in the water. She would have been real useful too for mobility and magic defense. Aside from that, everyone else cleaned up. Have been unsuccessful in leveling Donnel up, so I don't know if that's a lost cause. Trying to cut back on Chrom and Lilith because they're already level 15.One casualty! (Cordelia)

Paralogue Two and Challenges Part Three: Little more side content. These both went by without a hitch, and ending up fleshing out some of my remaining units. Marth got to level 16, so he's good and ready for a class change. Everyone else is still coming along nicely, and I felt a little more hopeful with how well both these missions went. No casualties!

Chapter Eight: Ouch. This mission was dangerous, and costed me a great asset. I sent Sully/Virion and Lilith over to the left to deal with the enemies over there. While I sent Marth, Frederick, and Donnel to the right to deal with those enemies, and everyone else went south to meetup with Gregor and Nowi. Unfortunately the Freddy/Donnel combo got attacked on all fronts, and I ended up losing Frederick. That'll make leveling Donny even harder going forward. Meanwhile, almost every other one of my units ended up in critical health, having to swap between pairs to stay alive. After the bumpy start though, things went by without any further hitches. I started trying to level Gregor and Nowi. One casualty! (Frederick)

Paralogue Three and Challenges Part Four: Not much to mention here. Everything went by without a hitch. Well, I technically failed PL3 because all the villagers died, but it was still worth the exp. During this I got Marth, Chrom, and Lilith all up to around level 20 and ready to class change/promote for real. Luckily I've picked up a few Second Seals and Master Seals at this point. Also I used this time to level up Nowi, and she's getting pretty good now too. No casualties!

Chapter Nine: Whew, this one had some real nasty moments in it that could have been disaterous, but luckily I pulled through in the clutch. I moved all my units down south to meet with Libra, and still managed to keep some stragglers behind to deal with wyvern reinforcements. All the usual people were in play, but Lissa, and Chrom almost died at one point. I was able to recruit Libra and Tharja, and for some reason brought Gaius along which could have ended badly. Class changed Marth into a Mercenary, and Lilith into a Dark Mage. No casualties!

Chapter Ten and Challenges Part Five: Phew, feels like I'm finally starting to get my bearings in Hard/Classic now. Steamrolled Chapter 10, all the while just soaking up experience for all my units. No challenge at all here. In addition to that mission, and a few random challenges I was able to promote Chrom into a Great Lord, and finally got Donny up to 15 and changed him into a Fighter. That should pay off in spades. Thanks to a new Beaststone, I can start using Panne again, while Nowi, who has been wrecking shop, is just about out of Dragonstone. Some of my units are clearly way more powerful, while units like Lon'qu and Panne are lagging behind.No casualties!