I honestly started an ironman run after seeing Mangs do his FE 6 hm ironman run, admitedly Mekkkah did the earlier one with Thracia, but I didn't want to be spoiled so I didn't watch it much. Anyway here's my imo, you should do an ironman run:

Table of contents:

What is ironman?

Improves your gameplay

Appreciate the other cast

Likely getting your favorite unit

Unique experience

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What is Ironman?

Ironman runs in Fire Emblem are basically fire emblem nuzlockes in a way, you do not reset if a unit dies, if you lose a item and if the lord dies or you get game over you start all over again from the beginning or you can restart the same chapter with some penalties like benching units equal to the amount of units you lost if any in the same chapter again whichever you prefer.... The first one probably pushes you to be more careful while the second option might prevent you from restarting the whole game just because you had bad luck... let's say pick your poison.

Perhaps ironman was inspired by the real world ironman triathlete event where athletes have to swim, run and cycle for very long distances.

or from one of the game Xcom which didn't have the option to reset but store your save data.

It makes you well a better player:

If you want to keep your best units alive, obviuously you have to calculate every step you do, every minor crit chance, you will prevent doing risky strats because you don't want to lose units, admitedly you will still lose a unit or two even if you are a pretty good player because you are habituated to resetting if your unit dies, you don't consider alternate options or the so called bad units.

This is not to say that you should use Meg if Jill dies... or Gwendolyn if your Marcus dies, but there are so many mediocre units that tend to get overshadowed by the other unit, like Rutger outshadowing Fir for example, who can act as excellent replacements for your so called better units if they die...

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It makes you appreciate the other cast:

There's no longer lugh outshadowing Lilina because even the most skilled players can lose one or two units, this is not neccesarily bad thing even it puts you in a disadvantage of course, compared to an efficiency run.

Basically the second unit acts as a replacement for your first unit if they die... some of the units might get to shine like Fir, Oujay, Erk etc...

It makes you appreciate how most fire emblem games are designed around ironmanning them or playing them without resetting.

Infact if you are designing a hack perhaps you should consider watching Markyjoe's video in analyzing fire emblem balance:

Analyzing Fire Emblem balance by Markyjoe

Of course you don't have to design it the way the devs do, infact I had more fun in h5 shadow dragon which wasn't designed around ironmanning the game but it makes you appreciate what the developers intended to do to make a fire emblem game.

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You will very likely get your favorite unit here:

Before I did my FE 6 hm ironman run, my favorite units were variable and not fixed, now I can define say that it's Fir because she is essentially one of my best units in that game.

Fir isn't particularly a great unit or somethinh but the fact that she's someone I can rely upon in my hard mode run without considering who's top tier or not, without thinking abt plauing quickly and playing on mostly my own terms, makes me like Fir even more, also her and Noah's support is kinda adorable.

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It's a unique experience:

Part of why I like ironman is that each run is really unique...

For example Mangs got a blessed Lot, granted he lost him later on, most people can't claim that they had an excellent Lot, I know PENIS comments are incoming... and for me it was Fir, she's pretty great in my run.

You are not worried abt turn counts or getting a perfect ending, which eventually makes getting the perfect ending in an ironman run really feel like you earned it instead of doing the usual resetting after your unit dies, you will realize the cost of letting your unit die, like Lalum dieing for me and mangs(we kinda lost a lost of units) doesn't let you get Percival, one of the best if not the best units in Fire Emblem 6 and still Mangs reached the end of chapter 22, only losing to Zephiel...

You honestly get some funny moments like Barth getting crit by an armorslayer in Mangs stream or Tate suiciding into a green archer in my run.

You know if you feel bored of Fire Emblem, try an ironman, it will definetly be an unique experience and improve you as a player. Of course some difficulties encourage you to reset if a strategy goes wrong like FE 11 or FE 12 on their highest difficulty.

Why did I make this post, I kinda want to see more ironman runs tbh, and I did make a chat you can join and share your ironman experience of you don't feel like making a playthrough of it, watch other players as they stumble and have fun in an ironman run:

FE 6 Ironman run

Right now it says FE 6, but feel free to post any ironman you plan to do here.

If you haven't watched Mangs play his ironman run on FE 6 here's the whole playthrough or the next one, his FE 7 ironman part 2 is on this sunday.

FE 6 ironman run by Mangs

Finally it's the way Kaga intended players to play Fire emblem:

"It's not a big deal if one of your units die. Don't get caught up getting a perfect ending, I want each player to have an unique experience playing Fire Emblem, have fun."

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#izanasees