I must say, until my Lunatic playthrough begins next week, I probably won't touch the game at all. It smacks of "been there, done that" now, and there's not much left in the save for me.

I paused my Lunatic playthrough on Chapter 8. The problem with Lunatic is that if you don't grind on the DLC, it becomes a repetitive mess of using your most powerful units, paired up to overcome the massive odds against you. Got a bit bored with it.

Perhaps the problem is that, we as a whole are just slightly too good at the game? 

I think that it's mostly what Rol said a couple of pages ago. There are some inbalances in the game and on Lunatic they show their ugly faces a lot more often. For example, the Pair Up mechanic is too OP as it essentially makes your character an unstoppable force, especially if you have S-Support. But on Lunatic, if you don't pair up then you don't get to be on par with the enemies and you're easily overwhelmed. 

So you end up not wanting to use Pair Up, but you have to in order to survive, unless you grind all your characters to be at least on par with the stats of the enemies (which is almost impossible as the enemies get too strong very fast, and skirmishes are nigh impossible) and that can't be done unless you have access to the paid DLC maps. 

I think Hard is the best balance between difficulty/challenge/fun in the game. Lunatic is just frustrating at the start and then becomes boring. I don't think i'll ever touch Lunatic+.

I agree, of all the difficulties Hard is the most fun and seemingly balanced. But I don't really put that all on the Pair Up mechanic as much as I put it on the map design and enemy AI. Truth be told, too many maps boil down to just wiping out the enemy in fairly open spaces. The more challenging maps seem restricted to only done once (via story or spotpass) or be DLC, which restricts some of the challenge. Later difficulties just up the anti of the enemy units early on to screw the player or make them dependent on one character in the early stages before they can get access to means to safely grind.

If anything, I suspect part of the problem is that they dumbed down the maps so that casuals won't run into road blocks even on the easiest difficulties and with Casual settings.

Has anyone acheived perfect victory in the DLC "The 5 Annas"? I tried this morning and its looks difficult. I think I can make it faster with anti-armor weapons but the ennemies on the sides reach the Annas pretty early >_

Here in Europe it isn't even out yet, but those 3 maps look incredibly difficult; this one in particular.

Maybe have everyone who can with deliverance, pair up to get the extra movement?

I agree with you on map designs. Even the maps with limited mobility for certain units (sand maps, lots of forest, etc.) are fairly large and open so it's pretty easy to just rush the enemy or roll down with you units compactly. 

As for grinding on Lunatic, it's almost impossible at all. Heck i'm on Chapter 8 and i've already seen a Fighter with a forged Silver Axe, while my units all carry bronze equipment because it's the only thing I can afford.

Edited - Kresnik.  Please be careful with your quote trees.

I really, really don't know what to make of that.

Now, if you find one of Tharja I'll send it over to Smeags for it to get some "proper use".