Battletech PC game: how do you feel about reloading saves? Options

[Wounded Ronin]

I never played BattleTech in the tabletop days. I am beginning to wish I had. I've gotten very into the PC game. Actually, in a tabletop format, it would have been perfect for my GMing style, which is a combination of off the wall humor with tactical combat segments.

Does anyone play ironman? If so, how much more difficult is it than playing without it?

I've been playing a normal game and didn't need to reload until completing the first few story missions. IIRC a random headshot instantly took out my Trebuchet which was almost undamaged. I guess that on any given mission there's a small chance that a lucky headshot will instantly take out one of your mechs and pilots and basically screw over that mission. Too much like real life, lol. Some little stupid thing happens, and it causes a big problem for everyone.

Since then, it feels like the seal has popped or something. I'm considering reloading on another mission. I'm considering the small chance I might be able to salvage it, spending lots of time carefully thinking through each move, while possibly getting multiple trashed mechs and dead pilots, versus the oh so easy *click* and reload and try the mission with fresh dice rolls and just get it done so I can continue with the game.

I'd thought that maybe I'd be able to get through the whole game without reloading, but maybe not. Not without spending a lot more time endlessly grinding to replace dead pilots. Plus your overhead costs go up so I feel like you can't really mess up very many missions after you upgrade the Argo.

So, I thought I was beginning to understand the game and that maybe I'd be able to go through the whole game on a legit single playthrough. But, maybe I actually suck. I don't know.

Has anyone finished the game on a single Ironman playthrough? How likely does it seem to be able to do this? Did the devs say if the game was intended to be played as Ironman or Ironman style, or if they thought you might have to reload sometimes? Philosophically, how do you feel about reloading versus ironman?

If it were a table top game, you wouldn't be able to reload, but since you'd be playing with a group of people, you might be able to say, "You know what? I think we're screwed." And then either, "Let's just say we all died, throw out the campaign, and make new characters next time for a different story", or else "Oooops, everyone died. However we want to continue this campaign and storyline. Let's just think of some plot twist that lets us continue the campaign, like you got rescued by someone after everyone blacked out or something like that." Whatever happened, I don't think most groups would have said, "Well shit, now we have to grind a lot more to rebuild a similar roster of levelled-up characters, or alternately spend the next 3 sessions slowly watching our company go bankrupt (Although, a group might decide the company went bankrupt after that and decide to fast forward to that point as the starting point for a new story). Hmm, maybe we'd better go buy a case of scotch now for our remaining games."