At what difficulty level are you playing?

[Gallenger]

I went with normal despite having played every game to come out of the IE days, and after lol.  It's been pleasing, I did absolutely no research into the game mechanics prior to playing, so I knew I'd make some sort of a disaster character anyways, and I intended to play only with the provided NPCs - it's made for a few rather challenging fights/scenarios, a few walk overs, and all in all just good fun. 

[Jimmious]

Playing at Hard. Enjoying the battles immensely even though my party has been wiped A LOT OF TIMES

Can't even imagine how it would have been to start a Hard game with Iron Mode without knowing already all the encounters etc.

[Arctic]

Playing in hard. With a cypher. If you dont go to overleveled areas is ok, just make sure to get a tank in the party as soon as you can.

[Eurhetemec]

Playing on Hard - having a lot of fun, I think I judged it right. I'd consider Normal and a lot less pausing if there was proper AI scripting for companions, but as I'm going to have to micromanage them anyway, might as well go with Hard.

[TimTumm]

I am playing on Normal. 

 

I started on Hard but died too often.  I still die in Normal, and there are several battles that I simply cannot win.  I wonder if I am in the wrong place (no spoilers).  I like the way this game has no level-adjusting the monsters to your level.  If I am in the wrong place, it is my job to recognize it, and leave.

[Starthief]

I'm playing on easy without any regrets or shame.

 

I tried soloing some of the early encounters after several tries (with a cipher).  I did the ruined temple with just Aloth and Eder though.

After the Gilded Vale I made a beeline for Od Nua and have gotten down to level 8; my party is mostly level 4 with a couple of level 3s.  i find that with a full party, most encounters are quite easy but a few present a real challenge, which is the way I like it, at least on a first run through the story.  Screwing up will get you killed plenty fast even on easy.

[Night Driver]

Normal. But now that I have my combat strategies down, have more party members, and am more familiar with the game's quirks, the challenge has dropped off considerably. It's probably tIme to bump the difficulty up to hard.

[IrithylStarym]

Path of the Damned. I'm going slowly but steadily... It's quite nice to have most fights against a ton of enemies with plenty of hp, it adds more to immersion

[AstroCat]

Hard is feeling right to me. Challenging with the need for tactics but not over the top annoying.

[Lephys]

Hard + expert. When I finish the game I may try Path of the Damned + Expert + Trial of Iron. Trial of Iron scares me. I would hate to make it to the end of the game just to get wrecked by a chance spell. I'm not sure how one would even go about completing the game with these settings? You'd have to keep your main character back away from the fight as you send legions of fodder adventures picked up in taverns to break through the enemies. Or you could copy the save file, which defeats the purpose entirely.

I have never tried any kind of "Iron Man Mode" before XCOM:EU. I can't do it on ridiculous difficulty settings, but it's actually pretty fun at the appropriate difficulty setting. You kind of have to be really familiar with the mechanics, and just good at on-the-fly reactions that are at least somewhat optimized. If you get to that point, with any particular difficulty level (meaning, you really don't have to get THAT flawless at the game as long as you're good enough/familiar enough for a given difficulty level), you might want to try it out.

 

It's kind of liberating. I just naturally always think "Oh no, should I have said that? Maybe I should've tried something else first, or done something differently!". But, in Iron Man/Trial of Iron-type mode, I just don't worry about it anymore, because I can't change it. It kinda gives you a different mindset as you play through. Maybe you don't want that on your first playthrough, but on your second? It can be really enjoyable, and I recommend at least trying it out. There's no shame in doing it on Easy or Normal.