I been playing XCom on Classic and finally beat the Portent mission (for people who played, it's the EXALT rescue mission full of Thin Man) and boy, I think I gonna restart on Normal. Portent is afaik one of the hardest parts and after that is, more or less, smooth sail.

I know how to play on Classic. I know how to maximize my troops mileage, to advance on overwatch, to use cover and smoke and explosives.

Still, you agro a bunch of floaters who will relocate to flank your high rank officer and one-shot crit him after dodging the bullet from your overwatch Snipers, both of them.

I appluad people who play on Iroman, but for me, it's more an exercise of patience than of skill, though you need both.

Do you load when you lose a soldier? A mission? A country funding? In the end it's all about how much time you want to save.Restarting the game takes days of get back on track while loading after a bullshit crit will put you back on track.

My rule is to save at the start of a mission and unless it's a wipe, I'll just roll with it.

However, the «right» way to play Xcom, specially on higher difficult levels is WW I trench warfare struggle with you winning the battlefield inch by inch, which gets boring after 20+ missions, and infuriating when you still die despite all the effort.