FE4 terrible pairings AAAA run

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

I've played FE4 a lot and am nearing the point where playing normally is just too repetitive/easy to be fun, so I want to try something challenging other than LTC. My idea is to try to get the highest ranks possible while playing with the handicap of terrible children in the second generation. However, I don't trust myself to choose the actual worst parings possible, so I decided it would be better if other people chose for me. In my play through I'll go for whatever pairings you suggest, even if it means waiting around for an absurd number of turns in Chapter 3 to pair Finn and Tilityu. I'll use the first pairings anyone suggests, but I'll only take one pairing from each person. Once the run starts I'll update my progress as I go.

The pairings will be as follows:
Aideen x Dew
Aira x Claude
Lachesis x Holyn
Sylvia x Noish
Fury x Arden
Jamka x Tilityu
Finn x Briggid

Videos:
Prologue (10 turns)

Part 1:

Part 2:

[spoiler=Chapter 1]Turns: 25
Arena: Everyone cleared, except of Alec, Arden, Lex, Dew, and Ethlin, who made it to the final fight, and Aideen who obviously couldn't do anything
Unusual strategies: None
Improvements: Lex could have cleared the arena with the hero axe, but I decided to save a turn instead of letting him do this, since he has elite anyways
If I allocated Alec more EXP he might have had a chance to clear the arena. The turn count could be reduced a fair bit, but then Deidre wouldn't have a chance to clear the arena.
Levels:
Everyone is on track, except for Alec, who is quite a bit behind, and Arden, who is slightly ahead
Unusual tactics:
None

And chapter two is done in 32 turns. Not very fast, but I took a bit of time to be able to clear arenas/staff spam.

[spoiler=Chapter 2]
Here are the levels of my units:

[spoiler=Levels]Sigurd: 19.57
Noish: 14.55
Alec: 12.92
Ardan: 10.09
Azel: 10.86
Lex: 15.64
Cuan: 16.57
Fin: 15.22
Ethlin: 20.04
Midir: 16.72
Aideen: 11.55
Dew: 9.01
Aira: 13.58
Jamka: 15.6
Deirdre: 30.0
Holyn: 15.67
Lachesis: 15.89
Levin: 10.32
Sylvia: 5.56
Beowulf: 12.70
Fury: 9.12

[spoiler=Chapter 3]Finished chapter three in 50 turns. Fin and Briggid paired up at some point earlier, but I decided to grind a bit more on pirate reinforcements to build love points and get experience. It is a lot of turns, but the experience requirement for the AAAA rank is much tougher than the turn requirement, so I don't mind the sacrifice. Also, all my units are promoted/will promote at the start of the next chapter (except Dew), so I'll be able to complete the remaining Gen 1 maps quickly. Fin promoted in time for gen 2, Ethlin maxed her level, Cuan only got to level 24. Altenna will inherit a silver lance, steel lance, and javelin, Leif will inherit just a silver blade. Most other resources will have to go to weak children.
[spoiler=Levels]Sigurd 24.94
Noish 20.48
Alec 20.23
Ardan 20.23
Azel 17.80
Lex 21.84
Cuan 24.11
Fin 20.2
Ethlin 30.0
Midir 22.32
Aideen 21.65
Dew 13.85
Aira 20.04
Jamka 20.31
Holyn 20.39
Lachesis 23.18
Levin 17.35
Sylvia 11.98
Beowulf 19.95
Fury 17.33
Briggid 19.74
Tilityu 14.95

Claude 28.50

[spoiler=Chapter 4]

31 turns. Even with the constraints I put on myself I think I could be completing the chapters much faster and with more exp, but the turn requirement is super lax and I'm having no problems with exp, so I can't be bothered to redo anything since I should hit my goal of the a rank regardless of potential optimizations. Sylvia might not be able to hit thirty, but I can miss a few levels. I got dew levels by feeding him a bunch of kills as he ran to the bridge and Sylvia saved every villager. She could be a few levels higher if I planned arena prayer abuse better, but unfortunately I made the mistake of not sending her back until really late, so I would've had to waste turns to take advantage of the castle healing. In terms of cash, everyone should be able to afford whatever they need in the next chapter. Aira x Claude, Noish x Sylvia, Dew x Aideen, and Lachesis x Holyn have all been completed, and the other pairings are close to being ready. Soon I'll be able to start on the main part of the run.

[spoiler=Levels]

Sigurd: 29.39

Noish: 26.37

Alec: 25.81

Ardan: 24.75

Azel: 25.0

Lex: 27.2

Midir: 27.26

Aideen: 26.33

Dew: 24.35

Aira: 25.26

Jamka: 25.54

Holyn: 25.07

Lachesis: 30.00

Levin: 25.75

Sylvia: 22.04

Fury: 27.19

Brigid: 25.20

Tilityu: 30.00

Claude: 30.00

[spoiler=Chapter 5]

Finally got motivated to play again, and finished the first generation. Everyone hit 30 except for Sylvia, who was at 27, and Arden Dew and Briggid, who were at 29. Although by doing multiple trials of maps I could have done better in terms of both exp and turns, I'm more than on track to hit both benchmarks, so I saw no real need to redo anything. Chapter five was completed in 27 turns.

[spoiler=Inheritance notes]

Jamka x Tilityu:

Jamka passed down a skill ring. Arthur doesn't strictly need it, but it will help him due to Jamka's lowish skill and nobody else could afford it. Tilityu is passing down the shield and speed ring, due to being able to afford them. The shield ring might help Tinny clear some arena battles by not getting outright one shotted, and nobody else really needed the speed ring.

Arden x Fury

Arden passes down nothing. Fury passes down a bunch of weapons and no rings.

Sylvia x Noish

Sylvia passes down the knight ring, Noish doesn't pass anything down.

Aideen x Dew

Aideen passes down restore, libro, warp, relive, and live, dew passes down nothing.

Holyn x Lachesis

Holyn passes down bargain, pursuit, barrier, iron blade, steel blade, and a silver sword. Delmudd will really need the help. Lachesis passes down prayer sword, silver sword, iron sword, live, and return. Most of that is probably unnecessary.

Aira x Claude

Aira passes down a bunch of swords, Skasha gets nothing.

Briggid x Fin

Patty will get nothing, Briggid passes down the killer bow, an iron and steel bow, and the Ichival

Sigurd

Sigurd passes down a hero sword, elite ring, leg ring, light sword, magic ring, and life ring.

Edited August 17, 2014 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Chiki]

Ardan x Fury

[Jave]

Ayra x Claude

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Wonderful, not only will Fee/Sety be weaker but Fury will have to stay behind to build lover points. And well... at least the sword twins will have high res.

Edited July 18, 2014 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Refa]

Fin x Briggid

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

22 turns to pair them up in chapter three...

[Refa]

ProTip: Have Fin kill the Thunder Sword!Hero so that Daisy will actually be kind of useable maybe IDK.

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

I think prayer might actually be decent on patty for getting money too. Like I can toss her into a pack of units with a thunder sword and she'll get a bunch of money and decent exp, then I can mop up with other units.

[Icon of Sin]

I'd go for :

Holyn x Aideen

Azel x Ayra

Dew x Lachesis

Noish x Sylvia

Arden x Fury

Jamka x Tiltyu

Claude x Brigid

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Any specific one you want me to use on this playthrough?

[Psych]

Dew x Aideen

No good skills and no good inheritence

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Hmmm... in terms of combat, but bargain is always useful for buying elite/pursuit ring. At least Rana's money problems will be solved.

So far the pairings are:

Arya x Claude

Fin x Briggid

Fury x Arden

Dew x Aideen

[Shin]

Go NoishxSylvia... you won't regret it that much!

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Critical Corple will dominate, mark my words.

[bookofholsety]

aideen/azel? sure, lana reaps benefits but lester is so garbage it's not even funny

also midir/tiltyu. on one hand, jamke cripples their mag ever so slightly more and gives somewhat worse speed, but on the other hand, with midir they get a slightly worse skill set? sorry it's pretty clear eugenics isn't my strong suit

incidentally, iirc fury/arden actually isn't all that crippling. pairing them is hell, but fee becomes really tanky, and while ced is hardly the usual lewyn/claude-fuelled powerhouse he still has his staff utility

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

I actually like Azel x Aideen because of rescue access at the end of the first generation. I find Lester to never be that great even in his best incarnations, so I don't mind him being weak. Unfortunately, in a ranked play through I have to train him anyways, but with bargain I can get him both pursuit and elite rings pretty easily and sell them back with no money lost, so I think he shouldn't be that tough to train.

Anyways, the only person I still need a pairing for is Lachesis.

[Chiki]

I feel like some of these pairings could be worse. Just imagine Azel x Bridget.

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Yeah, they could have been worse, but they're still bad enough to make this run more challenging than usual. Azel x Briggid might still be ok? Patty could still probably get all requisite levels with sleep sword abuse, and though Faval wouldn't inherit any good skills I think with Briggid's growths and Ichival he'd still be good enough to be usable. In this run I'm not too concerned about the actual combat strength of the children, only their ability to clear arenas and gain exp, since I know no matter how weak the children are Leif/Celice/Aless will be able to destroy anything by themselves. I also think Jamka would be worse than midir for Tilityu. With pursuit a promoted Midir!Arthur in wrath range should be powerful enough to kill things with two wrath hits, and with canto can avoid further damage. Also Midir!Tinny will have pursuit, charge, and continue on promotion...

Edited July 18, 2014 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[ZemZem]

Azel/Briggid is hilarious because Patty has a pretty damn high MAG growth, and she makes good use of magic swords in that case. Of course, Faval's gimped as hell, but Ichival helps him out a ton.

Maybe Lewyn/Aideen would be kinda bad? IDK

Edited July 18, 2014 by ZM©

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Continue + Critical might help Lester deal with his strength problems? Lana would be fine though, she's always just a healbot no matter what.

Anyways, upon listening to suggestions, here are my ideas for the pairings to use. They may not be the worst, but I'm just going for them all being pretty bad.

Aideen x Dew/Levin

Aira x Claude

Lachesis x Holyn (neither child gains any skills, though I guess sword inheritance is kind of useful)

Sylvia x Noish (I think at a certain point Sylvia's pairing doesn't matter because Corple will staff spam and Leen will dance anyways, but whatever)

Fury x Arden

Jamka x Tilityu

Finn x Briggid (since I'm playing for AAAA the turns wasted in chapter 3 will matter, probably more than having Azel result in weaker children)

Do you think Dew or Levin would be worse for Aideen? Besides that I think these pairings are pretty bad, but if anyone has any worse pairings in mind I'm open to changing them.

[Chiki]

Well, Lana would appreciate Bargain, but Lana would also appreciate being able to fight really well thanks to Levin (can she?).I think Lester would be a better fighter with Dew's growths, too. I guess it hinges on that.

[sirmola]

Continue + Critical might help Lester deal with his strength problems? Lana would be fine though, she's always just a healbot no matter what.

Anyways, upon listening to suggestions, here are my ideas for the pairings to use. They may not be the worst, but I'm just going for them all being pretty bad.

Aideen x Dew/Levin

Aira x Claude

Lachesis x Holyn (neither child gains any skills, though I guess sword inheritance is kind of useful)

Sylvia x Noish (I think at a certain point Sylvia's pairing doesn't matter because Corple will staff spam and Leen will dance anyways, but whatever)

Fury x Arden

Jamka x Tilityu

Finn x Briggid (since I'm playing for AAAA the turns wasted in chapter 3 will matter, probably more than having Azel result in weaker children)

Do you think Dew or Levin would be worse for Aideen? Besides that I think these pairings are pretty bad, but if anyone has any worse pairings in mind I'm open to changing them.

Apparently, levin!lana is pretty good after promotion with elwind, critical, and continue(although i have not tried it myself), so maybe not that?

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Alright. I guess my pairings will be as follows:

Aideen x Dew

Aira x Claude

Lachesis x Holyn

Sylvia x Noish

Fury x Arden

Jamka x Tilityu

Finn x Briggid

To record my run I haven't decided whether I'll take videos or use images, but once I've made some progress I'll show it.

My initial thoughts on the pairings:

Aideen x Dew: Should be alright. Rana can staff bot her way to thirty, and with bargain Lester will be able to afford the pursuit/elite ring no problem to gain levels. Him lacking inheritance is unfortunate though, he'll be using that iron bow for a while.

Aira x Claude: Hopefully with astra and Aira's growths the kids won't be terrible? At least they'll have decent resistance, so maybe that'll give them some utility in chapter 10 and endgame?

Lachesis x Holyn: Both children will only have charisma, so there's not really anything good about this pairing, unfortunately. Nanna can always staff spam to thirty and I may have to give Delmud a bit of extra attention.

Sylvia x Noish: Leen dances, Corple heals. Should be fine.

Fury x Arden: Will be annoying to do, but Fee should have high strength/defense, making her usable. Sety has good base stats and staff access, so I'm not worried about him.

Jamka x Tilityu: At least wrath is good in the arena... the children should be decent chip though, and with all the multi attacking skills could occasionally one round enemies

Finn x Briggid: This pairing will waste a lot of turns. I may even see if I can rush Fury to promotion so she can use return on Briggid to save turns in chapter three. As for the actual children, Faval is Faval and will be fine, Patty with a magic sword will be able to jump into packs of enemies, proc prayer, then grab huge amounts of money and experience. Prayer will be useful for clearing the arena, and Patty needs it.

None of the children will be powerhouses (Faval will be pretty good, but lack of counterattacking is always a handicap), but some at least will be usable. If worst comes to worst, a lot of the static characters are broken.

Edited July 19, 2014 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Celice]

If you've really played so much FE4 that you're now resorting to bad pairings for new fun, maybe you should check out the many hacks out for the game? Genealogy of Neir is a good starting one.

[quasimopho13]

Why not just play with mostly substitute characters. I know it wouldn't be a "terrible pairing" run anymore, but it could be even more fun. Just make sure Alvis does a good job with cleanup during the Battle of Vallhalla. Characters such as Holyn/Dew give great growths/skills even if paired with "poor" candidates. Luna wreaks havoc and sol along with 40-50% growths in most stats is pretty awesome. Levin gives insane speed and critical which anyone can find a use for (healers can dodge like crazy and then use critical on promotion). However, the substitute characters have barely any skills, let alone useful ones and generally low growths. Also the subs will suck, but won't be unusable due to conversation stat buffs.

Edited July 19, 2014 by quasimopho13