I am still fairly new to the genre, though I played some similar strat rpgs for the consoles such as Fire Emblem, Dark Wizard, FF Tactics (this one to a certain extent).
But I have been saving and reloading a whole lot. I usually allow one person to die per mission.
I was getting Gold or Silver, but the last mission, was tough! I had to settle for Bronze. Ehh, I forgot the name of the mission, but I am playing the human campaign and it's around the 5 th mission. I don't know how many hours I just spent on this mission...
But I finally beat it! And now I am rewarded with a new type of Eagle.
Though, I did learn a lot, and let too many units die in the earlier mission, which is a big no no, it seems in these games.
Just wanted to make some comments.